Arrangement With Zebra, 56" x 66", acrylic on paper, 1985. Artist's collection.

I was priming several sheets of paper with colored acrylic paint in preparation for my next painting(s). I left these primed sheets of paper pinned to the studio wall to dry. I returned to the studio sometime later and realized that these painted "fields of color" were automatically interacting in a very sophisticated and pleasing formal arrangement. This simple accidental arrangement of painted fields of red, silver, gold, and green (I added the zebra pattern later) represented strong allusions to pictorial issues such as; depth of field(s), light as reflected from a metallic surface; light as absorbed and reflected by pure color; spatial interplay of complementary colors and tonal values; visual rhythm, sequence, and pattern, which form a visual "call and response" relationship between the distinctive voices of the collective composition of visual elements. The addition of the zebra pattern was designed to balance the minimalistic and geometric thrust of the composition with a biomorphic, curvilinear, graphic element.