On CATALUNYA and the Montserrat pulp paintings
Montserrat is a gigantic, imposing, animated presence. I was aware of Montserrat in that vaguest of ways, but was unprepared for the happenstance of driving by it with my Catalonian host. It had a huge heft and every new view on the road increased the sense that it was a thing, a thing to be reckoned with. So I began my intense relationship with this mountain which represents the land and people of Catalonia. In that land I made large pulp paintings that were generated from the sensibility of the mountain. The few times that we drove past Montserrat I stared without speaking so it could live in my head while I was painting. When I finished the first series of five large works I was ready to go up on the mountain itself, to know it in a different way. We drove through it, walked some of its paths. From this deepening acquaintance I was able to carry the mountain out of Catalonia with me and continue working on smaller, embossed pulp paintings and an etching while in Italy. The readiness to work on something overseas had begun at home in the US where I had prepared my pulp colors to ship to Europe. But the passion to work came from a chance exposure to an entity that made powerful sense to me. This work is very new and I am still in the process of reflecting on that power.
Catalunya Postcard
Catalunya Statement
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