The original idea for the painting started in 1989 around the time of my engagement to Caryl. A confirmed bachelor, I was somewhat skittish over what control, if any, I might have of my life in the future. As a private pilot, I came up with this tongue-in-cheek idea of losing control in an airplane with personal artifacts flying loose in the air.
Because the focus was around Caryl, I wanted her in the plane; she declined (she hates to fly) but suggested I take her cat, Norman, instead. Of course, Norman didn't fly with me that day, but he was subjected to being tossed in the air for the camera (he was treated with all the cat goodies he could eat afterward). Caryl was now a photograph tossed in the air.
The painting is a composite of over thirteen photographs. The photographs of me in the airplane where taken by taping the camera on the dash of the airplane and setting it on auto while I turned the airplane and made numerous excited expressions.
The painting was started, but then hung on the wall uncompleted for 12 years. Caryl and I married, our careers changed, we moved from Chicago to New York in 1993 and renovated a 100 year-old house. The birth of Carly in 1995 took over everything else. So I had lost control of my painting!
September 11, 2001 changed everything. By November I was painting fulltime on a new series of five paintings, "Post Traumatic Retrospective". I completed "Blue On Blue" and "Witness" before reworking "Out Of Control". A new threat had emerged from the new rules for general aviation. Pilots were on notice of being chased by F-16's or even shot down if discovered to be flying close to a list of prohibited airspaces. I now had a new motivation of losing control.
The question is - why am I being chased, and what happened next?
Back to "Out Of Control"
