Post No Bills

“Post No Bills,” oil on canvas 48 x 72.

“Post No Bills,” oil on canvas 48 x 72,” was first in a series I call “Signposts,”

and sold quite a few years ago. Walking around on the UCSB campus, I was struck by

the complicated history of events and amazing surface complexities of the ads and posters, stapled and then torn and replaced, on the telephone poles and bulletin boards in the neighborhood.

To me, this series represents a form of “instant archaeology,” as evidence of

the past is replaced by layer after layer of new information, and it points to the ephemeral nature of human events. I was also interested in the conceptual irony of painting a trompe-l'oeil “collage” complete with staples, highly enlarged for detail.

I haven't shown works from this series in a long time, but I haven't abandoned the idea of resuming it in the future.