from 'Herd', 117"x 76", charcoal & acrylic on canvas, 1997
'Herd' was a body of work done between 1996 and 1998 and consisted of paintings and drawings in a variety of sizes and materials. The central idea and image of the work was the bovine figure (bull, cow, ox, aurochs... it was all the same). Using the schematic drawing style which characterized 'Pilgrim' a few years earlier, 'Herd' was principally a homage to the great paleolithic cave paintings of Europe, but also sought to address the fascination I had at the time of learning that the Hebrew Aleph had thousands of years ago been the hieroglyph of a bull's head in the Phoenician alphabet. And these curious parallels to my mind seemed best represented in the paradigm of a childhood scribble. All the paintings were, specifically, untitled, but collectively have been know as 'Herd'.