Title: Three Figures

Media: Ink on white paper

Size: 29" x 42"

Framing: framed without mat

Price or Current disposition: Sold

Date: 1986

Comments: This work took me about a month and two seconds to complete. I had been trying to explain to an introduction to art class something about Zen ink drawings; how you could be totally in the moment and create an image in a few seconds that was more powerful that one you spent hours, months or years on. They didn't buy it and I then spent the better part of a month making little ink drawings in a note book I carried around with me at the time. I made this gesture in less than two seconds and immediately knew it had everything I was trying to do in some of my other drawings -- maximize the variety of line length, curvature, direction, thickness, and spacing, but all in a minimalist gesture. The original was about the size of a postage stamp and when I showed it to people and said "see, here, this is what I'm talking about," they looked at me like I had gone insane. So I then enlarged the image with an opaque projector and inked it in as if done with a brush. The enlarged image had the effect I was looking for but also raised some questions about originality and authenticity. Was the enlargement a reproduction? A version? The equivalent of a hand drawn print? I ended up making three versions (one on a smaller sheet of paper) but only sold one. I think if I sell the others it would have to be for significantly more than I sold the first one for so as to appreciate rather than diminish the value for the first buyer. I'm thinking $1,500 for the second large one and I may never sell the third. (The one on the smaller sheet simply doesn't have the same effect).