'break through'


  During the work on the 'dance' (18 meter painting), the artist suffered a breakdown.The consequence of the breakdown resulted in the artist taking refuge in alcohol. On one particular occasion traveling back to his studio (by utilizing a friends car), he drove off the road and down a cliff face. The car rolled over several times and landed some 300 meters further down onto a terraced area (sic; for farming difficult land areas). It ended as a mass of twisted metal and yet amazingly the artist did not suffer injuries. It took some days before his Greek friend found the vehicle. Not believing that anyone could have survived the crash. He asked Denis to sit in the car 'just to see' how he escaped death.

It transpired that the metal sub frame had stopped short of impaling him by less than a millimeter. His Greek friend believed this to be  'a miracle' and suggested to the artist that he give thanks to God in the Greek tradition of making some sort of offering. That year the artist painted 'man in blue' on mahogany plywood. He strapped the painting to his back and climbed to the top of 'Palia Hora' and placed the painting in one of the churchs at the top of the mountain. This story marks the beginning of the artist introducing a spiritual element into his work.  With a new mind set he continued work on the 'dance' struggling to align his 'conscious separation method and his newly found belief system. After over two years work on the painting(s) and possibly dejected at the lack of bringing the work to a satisfactory conclusion, he reduced 'dance' into small canvas pieces. The artist chose specific parts of the work and re-assembled them on a 1.6mt  x 1mt piece of canvas. The resulting work, which is over painted with enamel, resembles a stain glass window in a church, which surprisingly seems to have stones or missiles crashing through it. The reader may deduce his/her own conclusion as to the message given, however it may be a comment on the (1990's) contemporary art of making an art which followed the 'negation' theories popular at the time. (ref: Martin Creed, Damien Hirst, Tracy Ermin). The title for the assembled painting is "Stoned". Three were created in this style. About this time whilst painting a commissioned mural on the Cyclandic island of 'Antiparos' he met his future Swedish wife and eventually moved his studio to Sweden which initiated a radical change and direction of his work and methods.

for more extracts from the book click on 'Swedish Revelation'