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Celeste's Desmodrama: Description

23.5" x 27.5"; Oil on Canvas.

[Click image to enlarge]

In the early ’80s I roadraced motorcycles, mostly Ducatis, but quit in order to go to art school and make a serious commitment to painting. This painting as well as the other “Steel Life” paintings were done while I was rebuilding the engine for my ’74 Ducati 750SS.

As the original owner and mechanic of this machine, I am familiar with it literally inside and out, and even after almost 30 years I still marvel that the various parts, whose forms are defined and determined by function, yet still possess such aesthetic beauty.

I took most of the disassembled engine parts to my studio to use as props. I prefer to let content evolve during the process of painting. However, even in the rare case that the “meaning” of a piece is resolved for me, I like to maintain some ambiguity when discussing it with others. After all, every good story needs a little mystery.

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