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I see that some of your canvases are black and white. Why is this?

These form a series of drawings I produced with particular ideas in mind. For example "Ship of Fuels" illustrates a theory I developed that our society is like an ecosystem in nature. So, as with the animals in the Serengeti, our jobs force us into food chains. However, instead of killing each other for food, we extract a monetary markup as the goods we produce are sold on from the base to the top of our ecosystem.

 

Like the concept in music, I call these works "themes" together with their painted "variations" on the previous wall. The idea is to think of the idea behind the drawing and then see its interpretation in the variation.

Your drawings, like your paintings, are full of details. What do they all mean?

Well, I don't always know exactly what will appear. However, as the drawing progresses various ideas emerge such as: the "giraffe team" who work loading and unloading the ships; the "scuba diving team" who go out in search of fish; the "entertainment team" (note the sweets to get the audience hooked); the "fashion team" with peacock feathers; and lastly the "computer team" who program phones and tablets.              

 

Not everything fits exactly into this pattern. The naked girl in the "Ship of Fuels" drawing (far left on blue background) who should be a manipulator is herself caught up in the strings of others.

What are the developments you mentioned and how do they relate to the themes?

Starting from the left: the development from "By the River Ray" in which I have mirrored part of the drawing and added elements (the strange twig-like figures) running across the meadow; Next, the development from "Little Dorrito" in which the drawing is hidden inside brightly coloured shapes;

 

The third is the development from the "Goldberg Solution" which explains my father's escape from Germany before World War II; The last is the development of the "Tree of Life" with the idea that some day we might return to living in trees.

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© All these images are the intellectual property of Alan Kestner 2018 and cannot be copied or reproduced without his express permission.