The Terrorist Series

For over 40 years, in many countries around the world, I have been stopped and frisked at airports before boarding. This started well before there were metal detectors or even restrictions on carrying guns. This happened before you even needed to show i.d. at the airport, just a ticket stub would suffice. What I carried on board made no difference. I once switched bags with my wife because she was convinced that the watercolors that I carried for painting during long trips were setting off some alarm. The alarm went off anyway, and I was hauled off for another strip search. I came to realize it was my face, which resembled various wanted terrorists. The interesting part was that as I aged, so did the images of the bad guys that the screeners were looking for. The Baader-Meinhoff gang, The Red Army Brigade, The Weathermen and later the Palestinian Liberation Front, Islamic Jihad and Al Queda all had members who shared my face. I came to terms with this, as the airport guards all over the world were not out to get me, but were simply looking for a face in the crowd. As an artist, I decided to explore this face, using a variety of processes.