Title: Disraeli’s Fears
Material: oil on canvas
Size: 46×62
Year: 2015
When I want to read a novel, I write one. – Benjamin Disraeli
Some assembly required.
I have always been excited by masterpieces of 1960s psychedelic art, such as Creams “Disraeli Gears” album cover by Martin Sharp, and I have always been fascinated by politician/writer Benjamin Disraeli himself, a Jew who operated in the highest echelons in Victorian England and did some banging good work while he was at it.
While drawing one day, I playfully introduced Disraeli’s portrait into a decoration inspired by the Disraeli Gears artwork and played around with the result. Prompted by my investigations into abstraction, I reversed, doubled, then fractured my image, and then re-assembled it randomly and re-wired it.
William Morris patterns complete the scene, influencing my color selection, balance and distribution as I reversed the blaring 1960s colors back into Victorian versions of their compliments, thereby finishing a broken loop of sorts. Done and dusted! Right-o!