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The Goats

Over the years I've done a number of animal pictures and goats have figured most prominently in this regard. They are intelligent and amazing creatures. The wide range of differences among the various species, both domestic and wild, provides a fathomless source of inspiration for my art.

I first encountered these fascinating creatures when I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia many years ago. Later in the mid eighties, I saw a pair of French films which rekindled and reinforced this involvement – a development all the more significant because, by then, I had already firmly committed to the visual arts as a career.

This gallery is divided into three groups – each marked by similarities in theme and technique. All of the works are executed on paper.

The goats in this first section are the most “realistic” of the three. A plaster patch compound was first applied to heavy weight printmaking paper to give the appearance and texture of a stucco or grotto wall. I generally used the earth tones range of my pastels palette in order to suggest the imagery of megalithic artists. The backgrounds are filled with various fertility symbols, faces, demons, and masks.

The Great Horned Goat | The Breton Goat | The Goat of Fertility | The Lascivious Goat | The Goat of the White Goddess

The three images in this section constitute a somewhat serendipitous set. Paper was coated with acrylic molding paste to form the ground upon which the pictures were created. Given the goat's long association with the carnal impulse in literature and art, Eros and desire figure prominently in these pieces.

The Kama Goat | The Perplexed Goat | The Goat of Provence

This last section represents some of the most fun I had in doing the goat pictures. As you can see, I uninhibitedly indulged my penchant for whimsy, color, humor, and the absurd. As with the pieces in the first section, pastel was applied to a plaster ground on paper. I also expanded the range of media to include everything from glitter to thread to ribbon. There's even some “genuine” zirconium thrown in!

The Avuncular Goat | The Rasta Goat | The Red Goat | The Goat of Winter | The Nilotic Goat

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