The Other Shore III, charcoal on paper, 18×24″

RMarr Studios:The Chocolate Factory, 54 Elizabeth Street – Studio 31, Red Hook 12571 | 973-650-6359 | Stairs into studio

ovo.gallery / [email protected]

River Escapes

I received an MFA from University of Chicago in 1983, went to Asia for most of the 1980’s, worked and raised a family during the 1990’s and 2000’s, and was finally able to refocus part of my time after 2010 on making art. Freed from the art world ideology of art with a capital A, I humbled myself to drawing and painting views from my sailboat. I tried to compose images that conveyed the feeling of being knocked about on deck as the boat heeled in the wind. The more I did this, the more interested I became in the water itself and the waves that were causing the tumult. I dispensed with the boat and fell overboard, drawing and painting waves crashing on shore or into each other. I spent much of this time on the east end of Long Island near where I grew up and where Caro, my wife, was living when we met. In 2018 we moved to Rhinebeck and my artistic attention diverted to the Hudson River. Increasingly I am under its spell, learning about its long geological history and powerful impact on early and contemporary America. I take photos while kayaking, sailing or standing on its eastern shore, and reinterpret them in charcoal and oil paint.