May 2, 2006 - 3:30 pm
An Idea Develops

To be honest, I’m not very good at discussing my work while it is in progress.  I’m too sensitive, too fragile.  As an alternative, in the next few journal entries, I thought I would look back at how my painting, “Sam and the Perfect World” came to be.  (I’m much thicker skinned after the fact.)

For seventeen years I have painted people: First it was the children of the central city of Milwaukee, then two dairy farmers from south-central Wisconsin, Erv and Mercedes Wagner.  For a variety of reasons, I never considered myself, or a member of my family, as a possible subject for a major painting.

In 1997 my son, Sam was born.  As any parent will tell you, having a newborn child in the house changes everything.  But there was one other significant adjustment – Sam had a major disability.  From that first day on, the experience of being Sam’s father changed me to the core.  And I knew someday Sam’s influence, his point of view, would come to bear on my art.  When I read about this portrait competition in May of 2005, it seemed I was very ready – perhaps even overdue – to attempt what I had been dreaming about all these years; a large oil painting about Sam.  Now, finally, I gave myself permission to work on it, full time.  And the ideas just poured out of me.

The initial concept, worked out in preliminary painting #1, was inspired in part by Thomas Cole’s “The Oxbow” although the landscape metaphor, civilized verses wild, would have a different meaning when applied to Sam’s situation. The second preliminary painting literally shows Sam’s two worlds: an idealized pastoral landscape as the non-disabled community, contrasted with Sam. The perfect bucolic landscape however would be cloudless… (More next time).

My website: www.davidmlenz.com

Image 1: Sam and the Perfect World, preliminary painting #1 ©David Lenz
Image 2: Sam and the Perfect World, preliminary painting #2 ©David Lenz