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cp 12
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(#104) TWELVE: Chez Panisse twelfth anniversary.

Edition of 1600 of which 300 are signed 1-300, 26 are signed A-Z as artist's proofs, and 3 sets are signed as progressives.

July 14, 1983 12 colors 17-3/4" x 24"

Client: Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Café & Restaurant, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94709. Telephone (510) 548-5525 A-Z: Artist's own use. Progressives: 1 set to Alice Waters

Influence: John F. Peto

The hardest things to draw are people and domestic animals, because everybody knows what they should look like. Next in difficulty are three-dimensional objects, because here perspective can trip you up, and render even a fairly good representation awkward. Easiest to draw are plants, because perspective almost doesn't matter, and a vine can twine one way or another with nobody being the wiser.

My interest in art began with calligraphy and lettering. Though highly formalized, the alphabet allows plenty of room for freedom of individual expression. Through the Irish Uncials, I was drawn into the intricacies of medieval Irish art, and thence to the arabesques of Art Nouveau. This led me naturally to plant forms, and from there to drawing inanimate objects. Last to suffer my attentions was the human form.

I began drawing people on a regular, formal basis in the late 1970s. As with anything that you put yourself to, and pay attention, and try hard, I have steadily improved. Echoing Hokusai, who signed his later works "Manji, Old Man Mad about Painting," I too hope to improve until I am one-hundred and ten years old.