Surface Tension

Surface Tension

1980, oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

"You have confused the true and the real."

--Samuel R. Delany, from the book Dhalgren

Having learned perspective early on, I came to realize that this was a man-made technique used to simulate three-dimensionality in a two-dimensional work. What if perspective was never invented? Painting the inside of my college boarding room, I tried to render the scene exactly as I saw it, leading to parallel lines in the work that very definitely do not lead to a common vanishing point or horizon line. I finished the room, and was trying to figure out what to put in the windows (in reality, boringly blocked by bushes from this angle). During one particularly drug-influenced evening, I briefly saw the overall pattern of life. The next day, I realized that the room could represent my mind (since it was full of my interests: paintings, books, music, pot plants, etc.) while the windows were my eyes, looking out and seeing the emerging patterns in the world, translated and stored on my mind's blank canvas.

All work displayed on these pages © 1980, 2000 Rick Hines.
Material may not be used without the artist's written permission.