Many art works about the Holocaust are black, white, gray and maybe some red for blood, perhaps because the images we have of those years are black and white photographs. But one thing that struck me when I read memoirs and recollections of Holocaust experiences was the irony of the fact that terrible, unspeakable things were going on while the sky was blue and the birds were singing. It was this dichotomy of beautiful weather and horrible events that I found compelling. By keeping the colors realistic, even appealing, it makes the images truer to life, and possibly even more poignant. Zora and Michael Kurz and Freedom Fighters, I wanted to document the layers of time, and to suggest what happened to the people portrayed.
Brothers is also about time.
It was inspired by the tragic story a friend told me of the loss of many of his relatives and the photograph he showed me of two brothers. It touched me deeply for they seemed so full of hope and so innocent of their impending fate. Untitled was painted at the time of the beginning of the fighting in Bosnia. The figure in the middle was inspired by a photograph taken by Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War. I knew I was trying to express the inexpressible, to ask how it is that we can go on making the same mistakes repeatedly.