The Godzilla Series
This series began as an means of learning different languages of painting after graduate school.
I attended graduate school in the mid 1980s during the height of Neo Expressionism. I created numerous large paintings influenced by Neo Ex that were large in scale and featured aggressive agitated brushwork. I had also developed an interest in Caspar David Friedrich after seeing a major retrospective of his work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. My fascination with Godzilla began in the 1960s by watching early Japanese science fiction films. I loved the way film makers imbued fictional monsters with human emotions and themes. Some time later I acquired a 14 inch vinyl model of Godzilla complete with moveable head, arms and tail. Little did I know it would later become a model and muse.
The earliest paintings in the series (1994) explored Friedrich's romantic sensibility with Thomas Cole's and Frederic Edwin Church's atmospheric techniques and color. I painted directly from reproductions of their work. I later added 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 early painting titled "Above the Clouds at Sunrise". As the series evolved, I continued to reference Friedrich by positioning Godzilla looking inward to an imagined western landscape. I later became interested in the segmentation of the Godzilla figure and began a series featuring only the detached the head floating through various environments.
All work was completed in either traditional or water-based oil on wood or canvas.
Stay tuned for new work in this series to be featured on my website.
