“Torment”

I absolutely love “Torment”.  I know this piece might seem disturbing to some, and the imagery might indeed evoke that…but that’s the intent. But what I love about this piece, is that it’s so raw… and that’s exactly what I told dad when I first saw it.(Finding it buried in his studio was the second time I saw it, and I had the same reaction) Dad was great at pen and ink illustrations, canvas paintings of still life and people, recreating vintage sign magic, and drawing life like looking subjects. But when he did paintings like this, it was like he let loose and was having a lot of fun doing it. In my opinion, and I’ve told him this, was that it was like a recharge of the creative batteries when he did pieces like this. It kept him focused and fresh. Abstract painting came effortlessly for dad because he loved it so much. It allowed him to spill onto the canvas all those ideas that were swirling around in his head while he was working on other projects. In other words, I love all of dad’s abstracts because they were so freeing for dad, and allowed him not to be confined inside the lines as it were. He was like a mad scientist when he was creating these abstracts, and that’s one of the things I will miss most.