A Rumor of a Rumor of War (1998), Acrylic/Canvas, 20 x 20", 50 x 50cm

AWARD: James and Carolyn Beck Award, Northern National Art Competition, 2001. Ed Paschke - Juror.
27th Annual Juried Competition of Small Works, at Harper College, 2004. Palatine, IL. Lynne Warren - Juror.
SOMAR Gallery, "Acme Custom II." Exhibition of American auto/biker/retro art, San Francisco, CA.

This painting combines abstraction and appropriation of a 'typical' American popular image from the mid-20th Century. I have added my own distortion or playfulness to make the figure look as though he has been given a computerized version of 'the mark of Zorro'. The resulting figure with my distortion was then carefully hand-painted onto the abstract background - which had been created before knowing what the image to be placed over it would be. There is an interaction between the foreground and background which my distortion helped effect creating surprising relationships which I like.

(See references to "A Rumor of a Rumor of War" in Harry Roche's interview. 1)