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 classics of psychedelic art, such as Cream’s “Disraeli Gears” album cover, and I have always been fascinated by politician/writer Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew who operated in such high echelons on the bizarre planet that was Victorian London. While drawing one day, I playfully introduced Disraeli’s portrait into a decoration inspired by the Martin Sharp masterpiece and liked the result. Inspired perhaps by investigations into abstraction and Warhol, I reversed, doubled and then fractured the image, re-assembled it randomly, and reconnected any severed lines and shapes at my discretion to unify the composition. William Morris patterns inspired my color selection, balance and distribution as I reversed the original psychedelic colors back into Victorian versions of their compliments, thereby completing a sort of loop.