The Godzilla Series
I attended graduate school in the mid 1980s. During that time, I created numerous large paintings influenced by Neo Expressionist painters. I also became fascinated with the work of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) after seeing a major retrospective of his work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
My interest in fictional monsters began in the 1960s by watching early horror and science fiction films. I loved the way filmmakers imbued their creations with human emotions and themes. Many years later I acquired a 14 inch vinyl model of Godzilla complete with moveable head, arms and tail. Little did I know it would eventually become a model and muse.
My first paintings in the series explored Friedrich's compositional strategies and Thomas Cole's and Frederic Edwin Church's atmospheric techniques and color by working directly from reproductions of their work. I later included the image of Godzilla (painted from observation) into the composition. The largest and most successful painting titled "Godzilla Above The Clouds at Sunrise"(2006) was based on Frederic Edwin Church's painting titled "Above the Clouds at Sunrise"(1849). A few years later I became interested in the segmentation of the toy's limbs after the head broke off during a fall in the studio.
The early work explores the connection between Church, Friedrich and Cole's depiction of a romanticized world and the mythology of Godzilla as a modern force intruding upon the landscape.
All work was completed in either traditional or water-based oil on wood or canvas.
