Oil on Canvas        28 x 22        1987         Morristown, NJ
“The Palette Painting and the Palette Palette were one of those rare moments when you are struck by pure Art. A young lady brought me a printed canvas she had pulled from the Hoboken trash and asked me to gesso it so she could use my paint and brushes to create herself something. The gesso dried quickly. She put out some color and began doing line drawings. She quickly became frustrated. So I stepped in, scraped the globs and began adding light. We sat for a while, she speaking of spaces and wind and urban beauty, while I translated and painted. Then it happened. I looked at the palette where I had been sourcing the pigments and what I saw struck me. It was a child sized compliment to what I had put on the canvas, yet the palette was the parent. I told her we had to stop, that the painting was complete and that palette belonged with it. We agreed to let both dry and she’d take them with her on her next visit. We parted at the train station with a long kiss. I never saw her again.”