Artist Statement
Before I studied in Asia, Picasso and Gauguin had a great influence on my thinking. Later I admired the ideas and importance of Pollocks action painting.
At this point in my journey Liu Kuo Sung, Chang Dai Chien, Fu Baoshi and Zao Wuki artists mostly unknown to the average Westener have had a great influence on my work.
I am attempting to synthesize the style and spirit of their work into a new style with the same power, energy and feeling without copying their work or trying to repeat something that has been done already.
I believe those artists are the rightful successors of the classic Chinese artists of earlier periods, while the mass of Chinese and
Japanese artists have fallen into a endless cycle of repeating and copying the Paintings of the old masters without being able to catch the spirit and power of their role models. In general Chinese and Japanese traditional art has stopped to grow, change and adapt and therefore become lifeless and repetitive copying.
The modern artists in those countries that broke loose from this traditionalism have become mere imitators of Western abstract movements like Picasso, Calder, Kline, Polock etc. and have nothing Chinese or Japanese in their work. Those who try to be different have moved into way-out and ridiculous Avant Garde styles, crying for attention in the most bizarre ways. They have of course their counterparts in the West where artistic skill and creativity have been replaced with scandal and outrageous exhibits ...
