The Book Project evolved out of a desire to free myself up from challenging conceptual idea-driven work and to just manipulate color and paint on a surface to see where it took me. I discovered that a ton of hardcover books were about to be disposed of since the jails, a normal repository for discarded books, will not take hardcover books. It was hard for me at first to desecrate these books with paint as I love books and think reading is one of the greatest pleasures on earth. As I read the frontispieces I would be stopped in my tracks by the quotes and supposed intent of the author but these were great surfaces for paint and I had to remind myself that they had had their day and were destined for the trash heap so in repurposing them I was giving them a new life as one of a kind, original paintings. I laid them all out in my outdoor workspace and in the glorious sunlight I went at it - so liberating! Once I did that I was also able to paint freely and abstractly on paper as well - the reverse process would not have been as successful. It took working on a found object that already had another purpose to free me up and leave all intent and thought behind - oh, the glory of this kind of painting! I recommend it highly! Another title for the Book Project that came to mind as I worked was the Library of Incongruous. The book is a painting, the painting is a book.
