Artist Statement
SOMA & MID-MARKET SERIES
While living in San Francisco’s SoMa ("South of Market"), I witnessed the changes taking place in this redeveloping neighborhood, and found myself enchanted by the rich architectural history of that area and the decayed beauty that remains. My fascination with domes, towers, sacred and municipal structures began with daily observations of the Golden Gate Theatre at Sixth and Market. Since the late 1990’s, I’ve painted the facades of both iconic city landmarks and downtown buildings and continue to incorporate them into my new works.
When I first moved to the South of Market, warehouses were a prominent feature of the neighborhood. What I've loved most about SoMa and Mid-Market is the diverse styles of architecture, from Beaux-Arts tradition and Art Deco inspired, to factory and industrial sites and now in contrast with new high-rise and commercial buildings that continue to be built and expand for a new city. Many of the fantastic landmarks on Market Street between 5th and 9th Streets had been abandoned for decades and some have been restored and others are still in need for conservation. It is hoped one day we will see these storefronts and theatres glowing with neon lights again!
These paintings pay homage to the central city's building facades of both old and new. Notable landmarks I've painted, include the Original Fox Theatre, the Warfield, Hibernia Bank, the Old Mint, Old Emporium dome, Furniture and Carpets, the Golden Gate Theatre, the thermal plants of 6th and Jessie Streets, the Federal Building, The Marriott Hotel, and the new high-rise additions in SoMa.
My latest SoMa paintings were originally conceived from photographing at the 12th floor of SOMA Grand (a building located at Market and 8th Streets), and where I witnessed the panoramic views that capture the South of Market and beyond. Many of the sites featured, I’ve painted before and some are seen individually and while others collectively. In my cityscapes, I sense the presence of the silent stage uninterrupted by inhabitants. These paintings highlight the exteriors of complete structures and also depict architectural fragments. Their style is largely abstract. Playfulness of forms, juxtaposed against painterly skies. Painted by bright colors opposing to its usual grey fog and in the hopes to bring an uplift from the blight that has been present. My works speaks about the possibility of growth and renewal, exploring architectural practice as both imagination and reality. A marvelous city, that is in constant flux.
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INTRODUCTION TO TOMORROWLAND TODAY
Since the late 1990's, I've painted the architecture of San Francisco's South of Market and Mid-Market neighborhoods. While living in downtown San Francisco I found myself enchanted by the rich architectural history of that area and the decayed beauty that remains. I've continued to paint facades of iconic city landmarks, some of them refurbished and put back into active use, some of them still-handsome abandoned buildings.
Those paintings are my celebration of a suddenly rich city that looked to an ever-expanding future. From 2008 to 2010, I developed a new series of paintings, Tomorrowland Today. This new series was inspired by Disney’s Space Mountain ride, and by futuristic, classical, and industrial architecture; the specific point of departure was finding photographs of circus arenas in Romania and Ukraine. The structures I've brought together in these paintings also include coliseums, citadels, and roller coasters. My father was an architect and worked for Walt Disney Imagineering during the 1970s and 1980s, and while I was a child I visited Disney World every summer. It was there that I was first fascinated by amusement parks. I am still captivated by Disney’s Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland, and in particular by the Space Mountain ride, which has become an American icon for kids and adults.
I see resemblances between Space Mountain and another structure, a circus building in the city of Dnepr, Ukraine, a city that became Russia's major center of steel production early in the 20th century. Dnepr has also been an important center of aerospace and nuclear-weapons development; in that sense it is a city of the technological future. Not an amusement-park Tomorrowland, but a real one. There are similarities between the two buildings' design and also in their function as places of entertainment. For this series I have created my own version of the Dnepr circus building, which appears as a spaceship and recurs in many of these paintings, acting as a unifying element.
My Tomorrowland paintings highlight the exteriors of complete structures, but also depict architectural fragments and decorative elements. Their style, another unifying element in this series, is largely abstract. Individual elements have sharp, precise edges, highlighted by bright, flat colors. The style has more in common with the abstraction of architectural drawing than with realistic painting.
These imaginary cityscapes are a mixture of old and new constructions from various places, East and West. I have sought to bring centuries of utopianism and hope for the future together in a fantasized present, as that present might be created in an architect's or a painter's vision. Designing an amusement park for Disney Imagineering has something in common with designing the new landscape of the aerospace industry, and by now the futuristic designs of both Disney and aerospace have become part of the human imagination.