As a youngster, I was surrounded by the works of many of the finest working artists of the day, my father having been a consummate collector of modern art. Wherever I looked, my gaze fell upon one sublimely beautiful, provocative artwork or another.
Later, when I was seventeen years old, I was brazenly bribed by my father. The deal he forced on me was that if I’d get my abysmal school grades up, he’d treat me to a summer photographic workshop with the acclaimed master, Ansel Adams, my then (and current) artistic hero. Thus, from my adolescent emersion in the great paintings and my teenage submersion in the study of the great photographs, my time and purpose in the world was predestined.
“Larry is as enthusiastic as a muddy puppy…and equally as clumsy.” – Ansel Adams, 1969
My recent experimenting in assemblage/constructive sculpture has surprised me and I’m rapidly falling under its spell. I am surprised and amused to I find that I am drawn to iconic religious themes in my assemblages – Catholic, Buddhist, Hindi, Judaic. When asked to list my religious preferences, I tick off “other”, though I admit that I most resonate with Buddhism and Judaism, as they are the gentlest of the great “isms” of ascendant thought.
The older and more “mature” I’m getting, the more willing I’m finding myself to simply chase my art wherever it takes me.
Larry Janss