Age: LVIII
Hometown: NYC
Where do you now live?: Queens, NY
Where would you most like to live?: Tough question. Definetely a tossup. Quebec, Canada, Lund, Sweden or Old San Juan, PR.
Who was your first “hero” in life?: Sherlock Holmes
What is your favorite thing to do on your day off from work?: Laughing
What is your favorite color?: Warm Grey
Who (or what) do you love?: Inner peace, family and friends. Individuals with the strength and courage to persevere in the face of adversity. Intuitive minds making new discoveries and sharing with others. Being in the immediate now. Uncontrollable things like blushing and breathing.

Wooster: Who and/or what are some of your influences?

It’s amazing how a few words from someone has the power to dramatically affect another person’s path.  One afternoon I was driving my professor Dongkuk Ahn to the train station and I said, “I like the way the light is on a cloudy overcast day.”  He replied, “Then why don’t you put that into your artwork.” Well, I took his advice, but did the exact opposite; I began putting my work outdoors.

Conceptually, Jasper Johns’ stencil and number paintings/prints made a strong impression on me. I reconfigured his concept of a ‘target’ to my own ‘single word’ poetry, symbol and icons within a site-specific outdoor location so that the work existed in its’ own isolation as a target, allowing the viewer to focus in on the experience of being at that particular location whether it was a highway, a dump or an abandoned lot. That was a very deliberate choice on my part. Similar to deciding on what specific musicians I wanted to work with during a recording session because of their own distinctive coloring of a musical phrase. 

Most of my major influences during my twenties came from a number of different artists, writers and composers including Daniel Buren,  Robert Smithson, Art Povera, Tennessee Williams, Pierre Boulez, Paul Klee, Gordon Matta-Clark, Guerilla Art Action Group, Carson McCullers, Brian Wilson, Marcel Proust, Diane Arbus, e.e. cummings, D.H. Lawrence and The Who.

Wooster: What other artists do you most admire?

Over the last couple of years, a bunch of extremely talented artists have emerged on the streets today from all parts of the world and they’re raising the bar about what painting is all about! It’s like somebody put a firecracker in an art history book and blew it up right on street. The colors are vivid and the scale of the work is dramatic. It’s better than most gallery-driven art which tends to be extremely dull, overworked and sofa-friendly. Outside will always remain a punk movement, but indoors it always gets a bit tricky. Art is, and will always be, about the ‘feel’.  Like a great jazz combo, when they’re playing live, they’re fantastic; but within a recording studio, their performance tends to be a bit neutralized by the surrounding.

Back to the question. There are tons of individuals I admire: Dylan, Yoko Ono, Richard Artschwager, Richard Long, Lee Quinones, Robert Moog, Laurie Anderson, Alicia Keys, Rammellzee, Saul Bass, Stewart Brand, Tom Robinson, Noc 167, John Huston, David Byrne, Julia de Burgos, Wim Wenders, John Coltrane, Wendy Carlos, Bebe Barron, Omer Avital, The Last Poets and Don Leicht. Don has an inspirational work ethic. Here’s a guy who’s making art every chance he gets. He’s had double bypass heart surgery, kidney dialysis hooked up to a machine three days a week for six hours a day, and a kidney transplant and now living with extreme leg pain.

Wooster: How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

A tapping on the brain and a slight brush across the heart.

Wooster: What other talent would most like to have?

Perfect pitch.

Wooster: What do you fear the most?

A ‘sad news’ call in the dead of night.

Wooster: What is your greatest ambition?

Scoring a three-goal hat trick; making art that simultaneously affects the viewer’s mind, heart and gut. Not an easy thing to accomplish for any artist, whatever their choice of medium might be.

You can learn more about the art and influence of John Fekner here.