West Oakland Sunrise

This piece is 1 in 5 of experimental works that were cut from my monotype designs, each arranged into a unique composition. Much of my work in 2015 was inspired by a visit to a groundbreaking exhibit of Henri Matisse’s cut outs at the Museum of Modern Art. I was tremendously moved by his approach to creating color sheets and the vocabulary of each of his signature shapes. Soon afterwards, I began this cutout series from my unique hand printed colored sheets. The first sets of prints was 50 Lovers and Creatures of Earth, followed by this series in which I began to incorporate full color hand painted backgrounds. In this series, I also attempt to take up more space on the sheet and each design bleeds to the edges, in contrast to the print editions, Creatures of Earth and Multiverse of Possibility, which are compositions that float in space.