Urban East Bay
With this series, I look at the man-made structures that have defined some of our East Bay industries, and at some of the East bay's decaying infrastructure, as a symptom of a larger crisis. Some of those industries have disappeared because of a changing economy. Others survive after having laid off many of their workers. The cranes and bridges are still serving their purpose, but for how long before they are carted away in pieces? When I began painting full-time outdoors three years ago, I would have never dreamed of completing paintings as complicated as these man-made structures. These demand unrelenting discipline in that there is an element of believability you have to adhere to as a painter. Organic forms are much more forgiving. So the cement plants, cars and trucks, ramps and cement rubble I paint all have to follow the rules of perspective, light and shadow, etc. Creating believable urban structures with a plein air methodology is an ambitious undertaking.
