This series was started in 1997 as an examination of the philosophical question underlying all my work since 1972.

What is red? Does the fact that all things that are in some degree red, that appear to have some redness, exist as something distinct from the fact that many many ordinary things are red. How is there agreement on what is red in a world of infinite gradations and variations on redness and red?

Then there is the accompanying question: What is read?
Does the fact that all things that are some degree read, that they are readable, exist as somehow distinct from the fact that apparently all things are in fact read? How is there any agreement on the meaning of what is read in a world of infinite variations on how, when, where and by whom what is read?

These questions may seem to be the subject of academic debate, and in fact they are and always have been, but the answers also have relevance and enormous consequence in art and technology. How these questions are answered, or questions like them, serves to define the shape of semantic space (not unlike color space) and the ontologies that reside there.

When these philosophical questions become art, media or technology, they become real issues with real consequences. They are the stuff of the agreements that give meaning in all art, across cultures and make up the elements that will define the next Internet. Big questions indeed.

With this series of constructed paintings and mixed media works I choose to address these questions using art media, a technology that is fairly stable, and to examine these large questions on a personal basis; one riddle, parable and paradox at a time.

Elements of these works include the subjects, materials and methods of traditional painting combined with assemblage, figurative abstraction, pop art themes and surfaces constructed by rearranging and layering found materials.

As new pieces are added or others completed this gallery will be updated.