Fire of the Heart 1997

"I began this painting using a photograph, a famous Italian photographer, a portrait of the oldest and most famous horse race in the world, Sienna’s Palio. And because I had studied Kandinsky’s work and the concept of the Blue Ryders, the idea of musical notes depicting color and form, I took the teaming crowd away and filled it with my version of music. A painting which took me four months to complete while living out in the countryside not far from Sienna Italy. The music I listened to was from a French Jazz group called St. Germaine. Much of the motion of the background was done with the wood side of the brush, and where there is heavy contrast in color that is the sound that has come to visual life."