burning memories

1991 Galleria Potatohead - for my second show at Potatohead I proceeded with a body of work that was part homage, and part fly by the seat of my pants. I had made up my mind at the time that I was going to make a big splash, or at least, a less than boring show at the gallery. I was using roofing tar, gold leaf, and found tin and lead as a medium, and setting it a blaze in order to get a surface that was unique. It was all that alchemy stuff that was in the air at the time. I titled the showing of this work, Angels And Devils[ying/yang, up/down, a common thread for me]. For the opening of the show, I walked in with a smoldering can of roofing tar, giving the gallery both a flavor of what my studio often smelled like, and to add a little incense. Incenting it did, plenty of folks left, but those who stuck it out were entertained by the wonderful music of Roland Barker[turning down Pearl Jam for their first show], and some fine artistic legends of Seattle of the time. Steven Jesse Bernstein, Jay Steensma, George Chacona, Spike Mafford, Billski, Stare, Ann Gerber[also purchased a piece, which is part of the Seattle Art Museum Collection], R. Allen Jensen, Brandon Zebold, Michael Spafford, all in attendence. It stays in my mind as a wonderful moment, and really one of the few times I felt nearly invincible.