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2019 brought forth a new series of
paintings within City Synthesis. The Resonance Series is of cities and
landscapes using the earlier geometric studies of square, rectangle, stripes,
and circle. Reduced to the basic shapes and with a satellite perspective, the
real terrain becomes abstract, urban or rural. The subdued
Familiar Terrain
is the prototype experiment; its pattern is a short distance from where I live
in Oakland. The curves are in contrast with
Rockridge
with its bold straight lines and colors. The business street is College Avenue,
which extends from the California College of the Arts in Oakland to the
University of California in Berkeley.
West of Modesto
is site of a rare highway cloverleaf in California and is an agricultural area
near the Bay Area. The rural theme continues with the simple lines of a Central
Valley roadside farm,
Barstow Avenue.
Kensington Circle
is again intricate with another view of a nearby California city, with its
rooted circle and menorah or treelike outgrowth. East
Oakland Choreography,
a third of a subgroup, The July
piece is of San Francisco's South of Market area, also known as
SoMa.
Once, a light industrial area, it now includes the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art and other museums, galleries, internet and digital companies, and
tall office and residential skyscrapers. Its energetic, kinetic pattern suggests
movement and change. The following August work is
Neighborhoods,
being the adjacent Chinatown, Jackson Square and North Beach of San Francisco.
Here, the feeling is stately, confident, calm, organized, and strong, but also
industrial and mechanical as if on a building construction site looking toward
the dense city. The
September painting is
The Seine, being a
view of Boulogne-Baillancourt. It is the companion piece to
SoMa
and preferably should be exhibited as a set. The final 2019 work is
Jaipur,
which is my third painting inspired by my tour of Rajasthan.
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The new series continues in 2020.
Completed in January is the multicolored
Carnaval São Paulo.
It took a long while of
browsing to find this well-balanced kinetic pattern. Only later did I discover at least
5 associative ways to view my rendition, one of which reminds me of my
laboratory research using the scanning electron microscope. However, in
abstraction it is a matter of how one feels, how the painting affects the
viewer, rather than what one 'sees.' Such is not necessarily a Rorschach test! This is my second painting of the
Brazilian metropolis; I only saw it from the air, landing at its airport for
transfer to Rio. Still in Brazil is February's painting
Jardim Aeroporto.
It is a district of São Paulo adjacent to Conghas-São Paulo Airport. Jardim
means garden and, being a biologist, I can interpret the pattern as cells within
a leaf with their numerous organelles. [See right column.] If you google satellite map this location,
you can easily understand my attraction and color choices. The painting offers
eye-play and has a slight dazzling effect.
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