I began the Systemic series as an expressionist, studio painter. Prairie Expressionism was my "native" style learned as a lithography printing assistant in the studio of John Snow which contained Maxwell Bates' press. I was inspired by the critical social commentary of Max Bates. I was working on 11 x 14 inch mahogany sketch panels with acrylic paint.

My subject was the violence and intimidation dealt out by the people responsible for upholding "the system". I was experimenting with different types of surface to paint on. I tried foam core board but it was not hearty enough to withstand my experimentation with paint.

As I remembered my childhood I realized that we children were also hurting each other. Memory is unreliable. Painting is not best served as a testimonial device. I settled upon 18 x 24 inch press board panel. The first portion of this series is what I call "transitional" but the transition from landscape to studio work took place so quickly I decided to keep the transitional panels in the show.

I made an abrupt change of intention. I shifted my approach from expression to photo realism. Rather than concentrating upon the "abstract" subject of image and symbol, I turned my attentions to the "concrete" subject of painting: surface, application, colour, and texture. I used photographs taken by my father which he had left in an album dedicated to me.

My conception of "system" turned from social to technological. Family albums were made possible by the Kodak Brownie with its plastic film cartridge and the franchises of photographic laboratories which developed the exposures and printed from negatives on paper. Access to family portraits, which had been reserved for the extremely rich, had become popularized, economized, and a part of mass culture.