Out of step

On my long trek back to Europe, I wondered how often Tony Mafia had done this crossing. He arrived in Antwerp for the first time when he was sixteen, seventeen years old. the city was still in post WW II ruins. He was an able bodied seaman at that time and had missed his ship out. It took him half a year to find another ship with the same company. He used his time well, visiting churches and the cathedral, spending time in museums and just be in the city. 'In Antwerp I learned from watching the paintings of Rubens that air has color', he used to say. He loved the gray light that gives depth. Of course by coming and going one becomes estranged at bit of the places one used to belong to. Hence the painting Out of step with the band depicting our unbelonging belonging in both continents. This mixed media work on heavy German etching paper was painted in Hoboken (Antwerp) in 1997. Tony definitely more American and I more European, marching together to or own beat... Clowns on the prowl.