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(Text quoted from “Pittsburgh x 7” Catalogue,
 July 23-October 3, 1993)

“Remember, also, O Lord, Your servants and handmaids, Newton and Descartes, who have gone before us with the sign of faith, and rest in the sleep of peace.” – phriar phil

My Brothers and Sisters,

It is boastful, perhaps, to proclaim that I have fallen in love with my own paintings.  Please forgive me.  In this, as in most things, I am long on enthusiasm and short on wisdom.

Moreover, I fail to understand both the intent and the result of these works from the standpoint of logic.  I suspect that, at some level, they are motivated by a “wanting to believe.”  There is possibly something of the 12th century in this, however, I am by no means scholar enough to declare this.  I know something of St. Anselm, but it is safer to assume that I, having turned 40, am simply in my own middle ages.

I came across St. Francis while chasing the avant-garde.  In a larger way, he came across me.  I am aware that opinions about Francis run deep, are diverse and are decidedly contradictory, and that artists, especially, have taken from Francis only what they are or were interested in.  Even Giotto.  Especially Giotto.  I, too, bring all my biases to these paintings and impose them on St. Francis.  I trust in his largeness.  I hope he doesn’t mind.

I’ve borrowed many of the titles for these paintings from the “Fioretti” – “The Little Flowers” of St. Francis but when a title or a painting seemed to demand my own ingenuity, I reciprocated.  My concern has been to capture, inside myself, the sprit of these concepts and to convey them somehow.  It is not for me to say, but the paintings were not intended, at least, to be recreations of or illustrations about historical matters.  I love the living contradictions.  For me, these complexities are sources of wonderment and are best kept intact.  One might speculate that they are simply fundamental in such affairs of the heart.  It amounts, one way or the other, to trivia when compared to St. Francis’ concept of self-conduct, which not only accepted the Gospel news without reservation but also did so literally.

For those interested, I can offer some explanation of the term “Le Jongleur de Dieu” which I have chosen to call this group of paintings.  It comes to me by way of G.K. Chesterton who thinks that “jongleur” is best understood as ‘the acrobats’ or ‘tumblers’ of God.  Personally I thought this was insightful.  T. Okey, who translates The Fioretti which I use, says this in the introduction page xxiii,

‘He was the most joyful of saints, would have no sad, long face about him and always rebuked any friar that was gloomy or melancholy.  His friars were to be the JOCULTAORES DEI (“the minstrels of God”), scattered about the world to sing the gospel truths.’

In Florence, my wife, Marcia, took me to the Duomo, Santa Croce, and Fiesole – in that order.  The experience is deeply etched into my memory.  That three-part experience has taken on a mystical significance in my life.”

Marcia as a Tuna, Il Serpente di Pietra, performance organized by Plexus, Sa Itria, Sardinia, Italy.