I Chose Goucher was the first of 3 Pile Paintings that were extremely meticulous and time-consuming. The feeling here was that I could paint anything, given a decent outline to follow. This was the culmination of my studies of color, light, texture and form, thus far. My approach became very systematic and my treatment of the subject very democratic, everything having the same importance. This, in turn, fed into my ideas about taming chaos, grasping consumer culture or taking Pop Art beyond a “pop” technique. The empty top of the composition is meant as a spiritual release. The title came from an ad for Goucher College appearing on one of the newspapers in the picture.