Frari Series and Dermis Series (Combined)

Acrylic or oil on canvas, 8” x 8” each, 1997- 2006

While in graduate school at Pratt Institute, I studied one summer in Venice, Italy. We had regular classes in art history, painting, and printmaking. One morning, during what felt like an endless art history lesson in the church known as the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, I was focused on this peculiar set of wall paintings in one corner near the altar. To me, they looked a lot like what I already do with cellular forms. It was a slight departure from those forms in a very graphic, modern way but still very much within the biological format which appealed to me immediately. It was painted as a faux marble wall fresco. It was very curious; in a super wealthy, dominant empire like Venice why wouldn’t the wall be constructed with actual marble? In a grand and opulent place like this, why is it imitation? There are several colored squares of “marble” with white lines between them dividing the sections like a grid. The way it is painted, it doesn't really look like marble at all, but bubbles. Later that summer, I obsessively made my own versions of this visual breakthrough on paper and canvas. From this moment was born the Frari Series, and it continued to be an ongoing part of my work for many years.