Orlando The Orlando series is a body of smaller works; oil sketches, watercolors, drawings, and prints. Usually, smaller works such as these were either preliminary studies for larger works or just smaller works made in parallel to the large more ambitions canvases. In this series, I chose to concentrate on smaller works without the final necessity of a larger statement. I wanted to develop the sketch-like qualities and improvisational feeling that one often finds is preparatory sketches. I wanted these expressive qualities to be the final statement. Because this is really an exploratory series of sketches and ideas, the title Orlando is more of an umbrella title to embrace a rather wide-ranging body of work. It comes from the epic poem Orlando Furioso by Ariosto. I chose to draw upon this work for several reasons. I wanted poetic inspiration from an epic romance that would provide a range of dramatic subjects for the figure. These range from struggling figures in combat to figure embracing in love. The story contains magic, fantasy, and religion. It also was an extremely popular poem during the Renaissance and Baroque periods and provided the subjects of many paintings during this time. In particular it provided the subjects for many paintings by Tiepolo whom I greatly admire and which his influence even in this small series of work. As a kind of umbrella inspiration, I was free to improvise many topics that I could connect this this poem. Some of these sketches are based on literary reference to the poem, but usually only in the most general way. Some come from no literary subject at all. Even though they may suggest dramatic images of conflict and tragedy, the subject matter remain unclear. These works are meant to express a certain mood, style, and poetic feeling.