In college, I majored in art and planned a life as a painter. After graduation, I spent a year painting in Paris, then moved to New York in 1965. There, I began a series of paintings of solitary cars traveling in a moonscape setting. In the last of this series, the car faces the viewer, as if ready to drive off the canvas. I had begun to realize that I wanted my work to have an element of engagement and power that I did not know how to achieve in paintings. As I moved toward sculpture, I created a series I called Wall Works for Imaginary Landscapes: 7-by-10-foot painted and collaged canvases that stood on the floor and leaned against the wall. I added fluorescent lights and mirror strips, and, in one, a clear plastic box that sat on the floor in front of the canvas. It was my first step out into the room.
