PALE MALE: A Pilgrimage
DIMONscape® which has been acquired by the 9/11 Memorial Museum for its permanent collection in 2013.
The first print in the edition was acquired for The Metropolitan Museum by Curator of European Paintings, Walter Liedtke in 2008.
Pre 9/11, I worked at The World Trade Center complex and lived nearby for over a decade.
Watching the towers fall and our lives changed, was the beginning of a spiritual journey and major creative shift in my work. Pondering an exhibition of Byzantine Icons at The Metropolitan Museum in 2004, I discovered that icons were understood to be “the strength, shelter, consolation and spiritual reinforcement of a nation which was in danger and later in bondage.” Contemplating this multi-layered process where technique and spirit combine, brought a new light and purpose to my work. I discovered a way to translate this methodology and practice into contemporary media. I called this new work a DIMONscape®
The title, Pale Male, references the story of the famous hawk who made his home in a balcony window in a luxury New York City apartment complex, and also centers around the words "Love One Another". Smithsonian editor-at-large Paul Trachtman wrote that the work represented a new dimension in the artistic landscape - connecting the old with the new, the digital with the spiritual and the real with the virtual.
It also connected me back to the world with new life and purpose; a form of resurrection.