I spoke with painter Ross Bleckner a few times over the telephone in late 2021 and also in the summer of 2022. We talked about art, life, loss, altered states, and – of all things – our shared work as character actors in television and film. By the time October of 2022 rolled around and I was in New York City to meet with friends in the art world and review a few exhibitions, we planned my visit with him at his East Hampton home and studio to look at his recent work, talk, and delve a little further than before. I also enjoyed meeting a few up-and-coming painter friends who visited with Ross on that same wonderful day.
While I planned to publish a transcribed and abridged interview with Ross soon after our meeting at that time, I now will write a more comprehensive piece about him and his work, which features much of the interview content that I collected that day in East Hampton – only a few doors down from the house that celebrated painter Jackson Pollock shared with his wife, the equally important painter, Lee Krasner.
