124 x 294 inches | charcoal, chalk, conté, pastel on paper | 2001
Agony in the Garden: 27 Spontaneous Drawings — this wall of twenty-seven square charcoal drawings became the beginning of my ongoing addiction to paper and site-specific installation art. Before this point my work consisted mostly of oil paint on canvas. When I was offered an exhibition opportunity using this huge wall space, I decided to create the largest work possible.
I spent three months scratching out tons of square charcoal drawings. I made piles of them, most of which were not used for this show. My idea was to make a single, unified art piece from the smaller individual components. All the works were created spontaneously and without much premeditation. Certain themes emerged that carry on in my work today: sublime happenings in nature, supernatural landscape, spontaneous generation, abandoned beauty, invisible forces.