When I re-instituted Action Paintings in the East Village in 1983, I was going to NYU and creating many artworks based on ideas from the past. I had already re-invented Impressionism and Post Impressionism, but the art of the drip or the splash intrigued me and I started making small drawings with drips and by blowing ink. This practice of taking from the past was argued by me in class as everything had basically been done and became known as "Post Modernism". At the time, I was painting things like boxes, chairs, manquins, suitcases, wooden sculptures, etc. and making large installations of the painted objects. One day towards the end of my last semester, I had a Masters Degree final assignment due, and went to the roof of the NYU Art Studio building and splashed and threw paint around on a pre-stretched canvas that was 4 feet by 8 feet in size. It shortly caused a huge commotion when displayed in Robert Kaupelis' art class and when it was also displayed as part of my Masters Art Exhibition in the NYU Galleries on Washington Square Park in September of 1983. In bringing back action paintings I had a great second "Maximal Art" idea or method in which to work, (besides the dots with which I had already been using for several years). I later used the roof of my building at work on which to work large, my parents backyard, then eventually took it to the city streets. These large canvases (some as 30 feet long) were done in front of galleries and at art openings. Once I even got a car to drive across the canvas and it was spraying paint all the way. A NYC Policeman helped out by painting on one, and little kids too. These huge rolled up canvases were many times gessoed in situ, (on the spot) and usually took up large amounts expensive art supplies. Since many of the outdoor paintings were approaching extreme sizes and being that the huge crowds that gathered around witnessing the art, some began to become involved with the art, and in doing so, began helping by participating in the art by doing some painting and throwing paint themselves. Performance Action Painting was born and re-interested the people in the past art of dripping or throwing paint (which had pretty much died out in the days of Abstract Expressionism and with the passing of Jackson Pollack). Many television commercials were made showing stars like Andre Agassi hitting paint laden tennis balls against canvases or Jack Nicklaus with golf balls, television news crews filmed monkeys painting, or elephants with their trunks. This particular drawing was made much later on during the late 1990s (1998) and was worked on over the course of several years and finished in 2002. If you look very closely there are many small details that have been added to the artwork with ink transforming it from an action artwork into a Maximal landscape. Matting and framing of this work will be your responsibility, and acid-free matting is highly recommended. The approximate size of this artwork is 30" x 22"