The ongoing body of work...
Art UnderFoot: WasHere
I used to walk frequently around the downtown area of Boston looking for stuff in the street — crushed cans, rusted pieces of metal, gloves run over by cars. I used these objects as collage materials in a series I was working on at that time, about homeless folks who lived on the street
Once, on my way back to the studio, I came a cross a giant paint spill. It seemed that a gallon of black paint had fallen off the loading dock and run down the sidewalk. The amazing thing was that to me it looked like a stylized piece of art, resembling a human figure — a human figure better than I could have created myself. I quickly got my camera, went back to the spill and photographed it so I could study it in my studio. Good thing I did, because the next day the sidewalk had been steam cleaned. The spill was gone.
Thus, the first street creature spill, later to be known as the Shadow Figure, was conceived.
By blowing this image up on clear acetate I was able to add it to the paintings I was doing at the time. See this close-up section, of a 12 x 7 foot painting in the Urban Archaeology series.
After finding the Shadow Figure, I set out on hunting trips to find new street creatures. Here are a few of the creatures that have since shown up in my work.