EBB and FLOOD

Aug 06, 2024

Four weathered pillars of concrete stand at ocean's edge. The sky is a hazy fog that blurs at the horizon above a deep blue sea. Approaching the foreground, sea green water becomes glassy reflecting the sun as the receding tide slowly rolls out depositing a meandering line of detritus on the wet sand. — EBB (2000), Acrylic on Canvas - 36" x 48"

Some time after cancer surgery, I experienced some particularly compelling waking dreams. I didn't know what they were about, but I felt that I had to paint them. EBB and FLOOD were done on faith-it didn't matter if anyone—even myself—understood what they were about, they had to be made real.

Water pours through four vertical channels cut into the face of a wide stone wall. The concrete is marked with rectangular seams from when it was poured. The white paint of a 5-pointed star fades at the top corner of one inlet. Beyond, the clear blue ocean gives way to dreary gray sky, the two separated by a yellow line sitting on the horizon. — FLOOD (2000), Acrylic on Canvas - 36" x 48"

I was having a conversation about my work with Betsy Wollheim, longtime friend and smart editor/publisher. She said, "What do you mean you don't know what they are about? It's been obvious to me from the first time I saw them."

She went on to explain that the images were about my emotions at the time of my cancer surgery. I felt that things could go one way or the other: FLOOD is the negative side, a spilling of water in a gray world, unstoppable and rising. In EBB the water is receding and the sun shining, stalwart concrete pillars withstand the assault of the elements to last another day.

She was right, of course. I knew as soon as she started explaining it all!

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Additional images from EBB and FLOOD

LEFT: Detail from EBB featuring two weathered stone pillars at water's edge. The concrete at the base is saturated and drying unevenly now that the tide is receding. The top of each pylon is marred with four uniform holes weeping with rust. Cracks in the concrete connect two of the holes on a wavy diagonal. The top of each stone weathered unevenly and lighter in color catching illumination from the sun. RIGHT: Detail of water pouring through channels cut into a wide stone wall. Each channel is a tall rectangle cut through the stone, offering a view to the ocean. Like raised veins in the concrete, seams from when the structure was poured straddle each opening. Where the seams bisect between openings, a concentric hole sits in the adjacent corners of the grid formed, weeping in trails of rust. — Details from EBB and FLOOD

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EBB and FLOOD

Additional images from EBB and FLOOD

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