My mother divorced my father in the mid 70’s, and my father, who was both an artist and a university professor, wrote me a brutal letter while I was beginning art school in the Midwest. The letter was scathing in his anger and bitterness, which he unfortunately turned on me. He claimed that I was fooling myself if I thought I possessed any talent at all as an artist. Later, in 1985, I created Like Father Like Son, as a kind of forgive and forget artwork. In this small space there is one group of car tires on a chain, and in the opposite corner is another group of chained, hand-cart tires. Which artist’s portrait, each ape swing-like exercise represents, is deliberately left ambiguous.

 

Like Father Like Son