Looking at art:

Do you like art that includes words? “Word Art”, or art in which text becomes as important as the visual image, and may actually replace the image, has become very acceptable. Picasso and the cubists may have started this trend with their collages that included bits of newspaper and magazine text. Barbara Kruger, a post-conceptual artist, has made works that include text or are exclusively words. Post-conceptual artists have gone so far as to project words on public buildings with ideological messages. These works are about as far from traditional art as you can get. I look at them and feel their power, but they are not my favorite works of art. What do you think?

Work in the studio:

I met a poet at the farmers market in Sarasota. He sat at a table with a manual typewriter and a sign that said: “Free Poems”. I asked him to write me a poem and while he worked on it, I took photos of him. He had asked me to tell him a bit about myself before he began and within a few minutes he handed me the poem he had typed. In creating a portrait of him, I wanted to include his poem, but I dreaded having to make text a part of the image. After a struggle with several failed attempts, the following watercolor painting is the final result.