In 1983 I encountered the Alice books. What then began was a series of images based in one way or another on the two books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Carroll's Alice has been a perennial muse for many painters, writers and composers. For me it began with the "Fall down the Rabbit Hole" and eventually has taken me "Through the Looking-Glass".

Throughout the course of these Alice compositions I have borrowed the Carrollian story elements involving nostalgia, a love of childhood vision and the use of parody or satire. Alice is always at the center of the story encountering fools, mystics, and perhaps some of her own demons. I do not attempt to simply dramatize the stories and often I find myself recreating episodes and characters in my own visual language of representation.

The unreality of the tales has a wild familiarity . We have all had encounters with the absurd. The dreamlike shifts of place and time find Alice in situations where she, like some young adept seeks the path of individuation. The journey takes the young girl into curiouser and curiouser encounters within the dream from which she ultimately awakes. There have been too many evaluations of the stories and of Carroll. I have avoided all of those articles.

I feel it would only interfere with whatever psychic connection I may have with Alice. Therefore do not decipher the images, just simply experience them. They are there for that.

The Rabbit Hole
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Copyright � 2001