2022

MAX (3:22)

Mixed media (March 2022)

To split. The act of opening up.

In this thirteenth model-specific series the subject was Max, a young surgeon who I was happy to meet in the studio and not in an operating room. I said “you must be a student of anatomy.” He said he was fascinated by the “artist’s gaze.”

That left a lot of space in the “space between” for exploration.

Willem de Kooning is a well known abstract expressionist from the 50s. Sometimes I look at his work when I’m pondering ways to abstract the figure. In his painting Woman III, for example, there is an emotional context to both his paint application and the way he dissects the figure (though I find his feelings about women more than disturbing).

With the Max series I struggled with the pieces and the whole. I struggled with finding a way to express the emotional content. There was more to Max then met the eye. To be a surgeon he has to be pretty sure of himself. Confident. I got that. But he also has to be detached. Cool. He has to separate himself from the actions he is taking — cutting into a human body.

How do you do that? You separate yourself more, perhaps. But where do the emotions go? What form do they take? How are they expressed? Where do you end up in the space between?