Father Knew Best and Other Tales

Just what it is that we are experiencing is the question that occupies the reflective moment. It is what informs the decisions and choices of life –from the people to the activities to the meaning of each engagement. And this notion of the present is colored not only by the past, but by the memory of the past. It is this incursion of memory that inflects the experience of the now. And that very memory mutates and molds identity to accommodate a shifting sense of place, relationship, and, even, self.

Was the house so big, was the lawn so green, was Mom so cheerful, was Dad so strong, were the summers so long, the afternoons so relaxed, the kids so cool, the nights so thrilling? T.V and Movies certainly led us to believe this was life. It was our life, and if not now, one day it would be ours.

Images break through paintings to show the simmering memory; the big brother in charge of money for movie tickets, the birthday party excuse to bring the boy to the table, the swimming pool to manifest the thrill of abandon.

Just as TV and Movies laid out the pose, the posture, the primacy – images of the everyday, whether autobiographical or extrapolated or simply fancied – conjectures of an idealization take on the power of asserted fact. It is this reconstructed view that fixes attention to the canvas or paper and proclaims veracity. The sky is pure blue and expands in all directions. The conversation is witty and flows seamlessly to the Goodnight Kiss. This art is clean and colored between the lines just the way every story resolves before the ending credits.