Pressed Between the Literary Pages as I Sleep and Dream

+  9 December 2009  +

“PR 232” (detail)

2009

I am very fortunate. In the waning days of 2009 a career ambition of mine came to realization.

On Wednesday, December 9, 2009 I had the opportunity to put on display at the San Mateo Public Library (SMPL) a selection of my pool drawings.

This opportunity is of tremendous importance to me for a few reasons. I have made, and continue to make numerous references to John Cheever short story "The Swimmer" when I speak about my drawings. I so often link that story to its influence on me and the drawings. In the same breath I speak of the concept of "journey".

In 2007, for example I transposed Cheever's story into a performance art piece. In the span of eight days I drove 1200+ miles to do 20 swims in 16 different pool between San Francisco and Los Angeles. I ended up swimming 24000+ yards in the process. A few drawings inspired by that trip are included in the library installation.

Obviously I wish to share with the community my skills as an artist and my perceptions of life in and around a swimming pool. In the art section of the library are monographs on Richard Diebenkorn, Philip Guston, David Hockney, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Ad Reinhardt and Minimalism. They too are a tremendous influence in my work. And to them I add to those authors who I mention in elsewhere in my blog. Everybody, I have come to join you.

Exhibiting a body of work with strong art and literary ties at a library works very well for me. The SMPL agreed to display alongside my drawings all of its available John Cheever books.

The Library staff and I are mutually and openly embracing the communal aspects of a swimming pool and a public library. And that spirit of "community" is what matters to me. Thus, I would like to take a moment to thank the SMPL staff for inviting me to exhibit my drawings and for their assistance. I would also like to thank them for the spirit of collaboration. For a number of years it has been an ambition of mine to exhibit my drawings at a library and that moment arrived on December 9, 2009. Patience is a virtue. 


The drawings are on display until February 8, 2010.