"i"

"i" pencil on paper 9.5x9.5" 1988

This drawing is a recurrent image that I may have first seen by Edvard Munch. As a 25 year old fresh out of school I was questioning all sorts of philosophical things I had read and trying to figure out who I was. Being very romantic on the one side and ambitious on the other, I wanted to come up with a distinctive style and voice. It was very important that I could find a way to tell stories, have the imagery come out of the process of it's making and have that process revealed. Other notable influences were Sol le Witt, who I had the fortune of seeing at the Stelick in Amsterdam that spring.

Also, I was thinking about Albert Pinkham Ryder and Jake Berthot. But this was also intensely personal as the image was from an actual experience sitting on the beach with a childhood love all night and watching the sunrise.