A Toast to David Mackenzie, and Susan Perkins and Tom Pink

I met David Mackenzie the day he took this ‘official’ 70^th birthday photo. Imagine being new in town, and having someone with a painted face and a headdress of flowers and vegetables show up at your door. Well, it was great fun. Mezcal was involved. His partner, Susan Perkins, and Tom Pink, who introduced us (and, by the way, generously printed all the small work in my upcoming show), acted as stylists.

The reason I bring up this story now is that when I returned home to my studio, my whole glass-topped work table was strewn with leftover leaves and flowers, wax beans and tangerines. So I started distributing this detritus artfully on a half-finished “Palettable” series painting  I was doing directly on the glass. One thing led to another, and soon I was madly engrossed in “Allusions: Things not as they seem,’ which I am showing at Berlin Bar, opening November 7.  And just to close the circle, the amazingly talented David Mackenzie made the five-minute video that is part of the show.