I WANT YOU is a painting from the Atlas & Fantin series and painted in 2014. It was shown at Coagula Curatorial in Chintown, Los Angeles, May 2014 and later as part of The Debriti Show at MARKET in Silver Lake, CA. “I Want You” shares some of the color characteristics of the large painting “Atlas” but is better associated with the painting “It Had To Be You,” that was sold in Miami in 2013. The painting was developed with a preliminary study on paper and painted in my Mid City studio in Los Angeles.
I Want You was initially inspired by the classic song of the same name from the album, “Blood on the Tracks” by Bob Dylan. With its underlying message of desire, discerning love in the midst of chaos, the camouflage field of letters became a transitional link from the “Merge” based work and the new loose compositions with multi-layered veils of color using the “spray & wash” technique. The surface reveals many inter-layers of pigment and charcoal residue, pooling and dripping around the formation of the letters. There is an initial moodiness in the palette with broken bits of red Plexi added to the scrabbled surface but “I WANT YOU” contains exquisite areas of meandering cobalt and dense yellowy hues and a bright surprise for those who dare to see…