My Abstraction started with a  question,  grid or not grid, which over time has changed but in the beginning it was grid. I wanted to show that as an abstract artist I just wasn't throwing paint on the canvas, and if I did I would have a structure that I started  with and would evolve over the time of my career.  Rather than an evolution of mark making it became an evolution of personal style color choice thought process everything related to that style of that moment in time. When I was emotionally and imaginatively connected to the canvas,  I would let my vision flow through my brush and on to the canvas.
Every Decade I have changed my core expression and carried over something from before the change adding it to the new work.

Melt Down #3  " Rise of the Tribe"
This painting combined the elements of my Black Leather Landscape with Color in an interplay of shapes with marks and defined spaces.  This series was a move in a new direction for me.  Earlier work from the 70's was more style oriented with abstraction and geometric spaces. 
Just to give you an Idea of what went on before this period,  It was 1971 and  my graduation from College, NIU DeKalb, Illinois.  I went in to school a nerdish art major and came out literally as an OUT Gay man with his Lover ready to make our mark in Chicago.
Why I say out gay man and couple is that in college Guy and I met at a peace rally on campus against the war in Viet Nam. 
He was passing out flyers and got me hand out flyers with him. We  had hot coco together got to know each other and as our relationship developed so did my art.  Next time I will take you back to the 70's before we go further into the 80's

 In the early 70's we were planning to move to California after graduating from College(Guy and I) this painting was from a show I did for a gallery on Halsted Street, Lascaux Gallery, The painting is now in a private collection in California, and is one of the few survivors of that period.  

                                                    Melt Down #2 / Red Floor Studio 1980-81 Carl Schmidt 
Inspired by Mt. St. Helens Eruption in the 80's and the B52's
To describe Melt Down #2  I would use these words  Neon , Black ,Leather, Landscape, Yellow, Sky, Boomerang,
Dark,Fetish, Yellow, Code ,Volcanic, Eruption, Flow.
Before  "Melt Down" I was working in a "Precisionist" Style that I will post and blog about after Melt Down #3
As Mt St. Helens poured super heated slime down the sides of this mountain and took out everything in it's path.
                                               Hot Lava Yellow Lava Red Lava What's next Lava....

Two Years before moving to Los Angeles I started a new Series of landscape paintings.
Painted in my Red Studio on Dayton St Chicago 1980-81  "Melt Down" 
(Inspired by the Mt. St. Helens Eruption and the B52's)
This is my first look at color in combination with marks and dominance of space.  Color flow from top to bottom.  Is one layer covering another as it flows downward towards the base of the painting ?  Is it a figure lying on its back looking up as it is covered.
I am rethinking landscape as developed space or space conforming to function with form that follows.   
Landscape inspiration was Mount St, Helens The Volcanic event happened in the year I began this painting and Has influenced this style landscape.   The color blocks across the center of this painting were colors I was studying to use in my color palette. 
 The three areas of the painting contain different creative elements or Stories. At the top X marks with brushed color is an (Abstract Expressionism reference)  The color scales are reference to theory of color, and The black and white area with marks and shadows represent the primitive and tribal.  So moving from bottom to top of the painting you start with primitive level then to the color level then to the  abstract level creating movement both intellectual and visually questioning the viewer.
Developing a landscape style in a changing environment with the ability to express simplicity color movement  with community.
This is the first in a series of three.