Vera, 16" x 20", mixed media, oil, and acrylic on canvas, 1986. Artist's collection.

At the time of this transitional image I was still interested in creating conceptually symbiotic relationships between disparate forms. However, since Bee Business my desire for the strict formal balance of a composition like Cape Cod has given way to a more intuitive, tactile/painterly approach. This painting began with no pre-thought concerning its final state. I first mounted a Chinese language newspaper to a stretched canvas--a remnant of which is still visible in the form of a four-panel cartoon in the upper left corner. The "Vera...." text is actually a fragment of a lyric from a popular piece of music I was fond of at the time. The text and cartoon are what remains of several attempts to intuitively develop a composition to my liking on the mounted Chinese newspaper surface. The black paint on the left was applied "in negative" around the characters of the letters (originally written in pastel) and the cartoon. Then the VanGogh-esque sun, sky, and biomorphic landscape was painted on the right. Some time later I came across the Goya portrait (at lower left) in one of my art books, cut the image out of the book and mounted it below the lyric on the canvas.