After I completed the Revelations in Red (I Am Red) series, I exhibited and sold most of them except two. The Anointing and a large red cross assemblage). The Revelations in Red series went on for a long time in late 2004 at my Flatbush, Brooklyn home gallery because it was so popular. The sales from my own paintings prompted me to help my art friends, so I held other shows there including Female Trouble and a solo show for Susan Conrad whom I had much respect for as an artist. Did not make many much commission from the other artist because I ether did not make sales or the sales were made with the artists outside of my gallery setting. It did not matter because I was successful at selling my own art and had begun to attract repeat collectors. Inventory ran low and I was reaching for old school projects to sell when I finally realized that I needed to begin work on a new series.
The Revelations in Red series boasted contrasts of Cadmium and Rose Madder along with wax mediums, found objects, mixed-media collage and Pointillist techniques and magnified my Chistian faith with symbols of religious iconography. I loved the look of my early Abstratrealism works but had a calling to move on to something more architectural. There was something missing and I believe that that a trip to Paris would solve the enigma.
As Professor of Fashion Design at Wood Tobé-Coburn School, I planned a trip to Paris with my students working in conjunction with the Travel and Tourism department. We arrived at Paris in June of 2005, and lodged at a hotel near San Michele in the 5th arrondissement on the Left Bank. After several days of planned museum trips and a visit to Versailles, I sensed that the students wanted mostly to party at night and garner the attention of young Parisians. They were too tired in the mornings from staying up all night to get up and go anywhere.
My subconscious began to remind me that I needed to focus on the real reason that I had come to the City of Lights. I had come to Paris to conduct research for my next series of paintings and, so I planned a photo shoot at the Eiffel Tower in 2005 on June 20. At the time I worked primarily from photographs, so it became academic that I plan a photo shoot from the Eiffel Tower. It would seem that the photo shoot would be relatively simple to accomplish however, it turned out to be most difficult. Naturally, I was a bit intimidated by the city and my language barrier. Everyone spoke French and I did not, which made things even more difficult.
I decided to escape the group, but occasional shower storms stood in the way of my spontaneity. Several times I got to the tower, and they had closed it because of the weather. On one of these rainy afternoons, I waited in a restaurant for nearly two hours watching the area stake on tremendous rainfall. There was so much rain that the streets flooded near the landmark and a few cars were seen floating down the street. Eventually, the management closed the restaurant. I was disappointed, but when I got back to the hotel, my subconscious compelled me to go out again, so I decided to return to the tower in a taxi. My hunch was correct. They reopened the Eiffel Tower, and I was one of the first to get in line. This was going to be a great day after all. I took all the photos from the glass windows of the elevator as the car moved slowly or rapidly up to the observation deck. The beauty of this is seen in the movement of slightly blurred photos (above) The color of the tower was affected by the sun leaving a burnished cast on everything. The kinetic effects that I got from the aerial photographic views made the shots breathtaking art within themselves. From these photo studies came forth the oil paintings: Cruciferrous, 2008, Temptation 2008, and Salvation, 2008.
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