My rippings series began in San Francisco in the 1970s soon after graduation from Cal-Arts. At that time artist friend Lynn Hershman, writing in ARTWEEK, dubbed me "Jack the Ripper." These early paintings were called rippings because they consisted of ripped strips of canvas. The strips were dyed subtle colors and hung from horizontal supports at a level where the ends spilled out onto the floor. Some were wrapped around bamboo poles and leaned against the wall. There were likened to ritual or fetish objects.
My latest series is called "Afterlife." The new paintings merge hard-edge geometric elements with fluid color fields and are generally not ripped. The title refers to the premature prouncement by critics of painting's demise and to my belief in a next (better) world out there somewhere in the cosmos.
