This painting is based on a photograph I took in Baden-Baden, Germany, of reflections in a shop window along a small pedestrian walkway there, following a brief rain shower. Also visible in the full image is part of my reflection (the "self portrait"), and in the center here, the remodeling work that was going on inside the store. It all made for a rather peculiar juxtapositon, yet that's the way it looked.

In a sense this image epitomizes my experience in Germany—but I feel that metaphorically it also relates to aspects of post-9/11 life. Ironically, the photo was taken September 10, 2002. (I just couldn't bear to be in New York City on the anniversary, and felt fortunate to have been invited to Germany for the video premiere during that time.) Because of the emotional implications in it (for me), this was a very intense piece—yet working on it has been therapeutic too. It was liberating to be able to condense a lot of unresolved emotional residue into this painting. Or maybe that's all a projection based on the angst that still hovers just beneath the surface, over a year later.

In any case, I hope you'll find and make your own impressions and stories here, as I hope you'll do with all this work—or any art! I'd rather not have paintings represent any specific "meaning" for others, preferring instead to have them blossom independently in the mind of the viewer.