Inevitably, my work as
an artist gravitates towards cycles of creation and destruction. The imagery of
the atomic bomb blast is powerful and visually stunning. The fact is that
somewhere between 10,000- 50,000 estimated nuclear weapons are in existence.
Why have we created so many? A single one hundred megaton bomb would be
efficient to destroy humanity.
I hope that my work
could somehow demonstrate the futility of creating these weapons. It
is my intention to overwhelm the viewer by utilizing walls, ceilings, floors,
and creating floating curtains of interior spaces covered by these images,. My
palette is bright and cheerful, and I try to lure and seduce unsuspecting
viewers into the space. Eventually, they realize what the subject matter is.
I have been working on
this project for four years and have over 5,000 hand-painted images which
depict the atomic cloud. The images are abstractions taken from the documentation
of above ground nuclear tests conducted before 1963 and from the terrible
destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My goal is to paint
one image for each nuclear weapon in existence. The minimum estimated number of
the world’s nuclear arsenal is 10,000. I would need to double the quantity of
my existing work in order to meet this goal. It is my hope that I can continue
to produce and exhibit these works.