We moved to Notting Hill in London in 1985, in the years when British artists and musicians experimented and mingled. The air seemed drained of color…

In west London, I was intrigued by the scale and layers plastered onto billboards in the neighborhood. Taking these enormous layers of discarded paper, some of them 8 x 10 feet in scale, I brought them to a borrowed studio, ripped the layers off, and painted over and through them. I stilled these brash advertisements evoking still, textured layers akin to landscapes, torn and shot through with subtle layers of color.

I started a gallery on Portobello Road, one of a dozen taking off on that street during that exciting time. I later sold it to Jenny Todd and Brian Eno. In 1988 I shifted from painting into photography, roaming my neighborhood with B&W 35mm film. A camera was far more suited for the quickly changing look of Notting Hill. I captured the domineering wordiness of the street views, the throwback feel of the market, the bold naked mannequins on the street, and the diversity of people rooted in this neighborhood. 

A portfolio of B&W and digitally tinted photographs were printed at Smithsonian Laboratory in 1993. My color photos of this time are a counterpoint to my Portobello Road series in black and white.