Painting: Acrylic on Canvas.

Painted: 1998

Size: 22”x 28”

Owner: In Storage

Music Selection: “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel

My uncle was a poet and a painter. He needed an illustration for one of his poems, so I painted the fighter. I have never had a lot of luck painting with acrylics. They dry too fast. I can layer the paint with oils and mix it right on the canvas or panel. In 1977 a girlfriend of mine introduced me to acrylics and I produced the absolute worst painting in the history of art. I would not try again until the late eighties, and those paintings were also awful, but I kept trying and experimenting. There are only three acrylic paintings remaining. I destroyed the remainder. When I discovered oils, I never touched plastic paint again. An oil painting takes months to complete, because of the dry time and layering of the paint. My uncle was one of my inspirations. He was larger than life. He lived outside the lines and gave me permission to do so myself.  At the time I painted this I had trained in the martial arts for three decades, so this character was a composite of so many fighters that I had known in my life. A fighter wins and loses alone. He pits himself against another in a game of wills. He sacrifices his body to prove something to himself. Do you know a fighter? Is your fight with cancer? Is this a representation of a struggling mother? What does this painting mean to you? It is also okay if you do not resonate with the topic. Find a work that means something to you. Art is personal. What do you see? You must become part of the work to appreciate the moment.