The Madonna of the Future
Scientists are working on artificial wombs that will allow infants to develop entirely outside the human body. In the near future, not only will we not need to have sex to reproduce, we won’t need to be functionally male or female either. We’re facing a revolution in the role that sex plays in human identity.…
Coming Home: Paintings by Carey Clarke
My great friend and former teacher Carey Clarke invited me to write the introduction to his exhibition of paintings at the Glebe Gallery in County Donegal which opened on August 20th 2023. Here is what I wrote, with some pictures from the exhibition. ‘Coming Home’ is the title of this exhibition, Carey Clarke’s first in…
Finishing ‘Allegory of Wisdom’ 2023
Some pictures take a long time to finish. This picture was first conceived over twenty years ago. My idea evolved through several smaller versions culminating in this canvas, which was started in 2014. I planned to include it in my San Francisco Exhibition, ‘The Enemies of Progress’, in 2015 but then discovered that, because of…
Siren
In mythology Sirens were female figures who lured sailors to their doom with their beautiful song. To some extent I see myself in this role as a painter, luring the viewer – not necessarily to his or her doom – with a visual ‘song’ as beautiful and heartfelt as I can make it. The pose…
Receiving the De Agrò Award in Troina, Sicily
On June 25th 2022 I was honoured to receive the De Agrò Award in Troina, Sicily, and had one of my paintings join the civic collection. The prize is named after Gino De Agrò (1919 – 2012), a native of the city who made a business fortune in Milan and amassed a large art collection…
PANDEMIC
An exhibition curated by Conor Walton at Sol Art, Dublin The Covid19 pandemic has affected all of us profoundly. It also represents a historical and cultural turning point that needs to be visually documented. It’s a topic that lots of people feel strongly about and (as this exhibition demonstrates) has generated a huge range of…
An appreciation of model Frank Stevens
Here’s a small note of appreciation for Frank Stevens, the model and inspiration for so many of my paintings. He modelled for my recently completed ‘Saint Jerome’ which I began twenty years ago, and about which several of you commented with humor on the slowness of my work and that the model was probably dead.…
Finishing a painting begun twenty years ago
While studying in Florence in my twenties my home was an attic room in a convent run by Irish nuns in Fiesole. It was called the convent of San Girolamo (or Saint Jerome), just up the hill from the Medici Villa. There were images of him everywhere. Jerome seemed to be one of the Renaissance…
Neoprimitive Narcissus
At the top of this painting, in the far distance, a rocket is launching into space. Two figures in the middle distance observe. Most of the picture is taken up with a naked figure ignoring this scene, crouched with his bum in the air, gazing at his own murky reflection in a pool of water.…
Asymmetrical Warfare
Madmen we are, but not quite on the pattern of those who are shut up in a madhouse. It does not concern any of them to discover what sort of madness afflicts his neighbour, or the previous occupants of his cell; but it matters very much to us. The human mind is less prone to…