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65 Thinking 
Although he rarely talked about his mental processes, I was always aware that hard, discursive thought went into his work. A good deal of his time before the easel was spent silently thinking.
In a letter from Formentera he discussed the café drawings of Picasso versus his own café drawings:
“You can tell that Picasso did most of his café drawings in cafes….each group of drawings is spasmodic. Unrelated poses…a matter of using up the paper. When I sit and draw figures or parts of the anatomy, it all
hits the same chord…Picasso was note-taking. I’m not taking notes, I’m rehearsing.”
In another note, from Mexico, he said, “Things unseen are fascinating to artists…sad to be an artist -- no matter what you paint won’t keep you from dying.”
He wrote, about travel in Mexico and elsewhere, “…my mind pleads to see constantly what I’ve not yet thought.”
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66
The renderings were a reaction against neo-realism, just as Funk Art and neo-realism, including Bay Area Figurative art,
were reactions against New York abstract expressionism. Sometimes reactions are stronger than stimuli, and this is certainly true in Reich’s case.
Neorealism and even abstract expressionism were often cool, calm, soothing, amusing, decorative; Reich was hot, seriously cooked, and arousing.
Realists and abstractionists eschewed personal involvement, while Reich was deeply involved in his imagery.
Life Change The end of the renderings period coincided with an abrupt change in Reich’s life.
I had refused to cross the picket line in a strike against the Sacramento Bee, ending my career as a writer.
We moved from a huge, mystique-laden Bauhausy place in Sacramento, a house that loved to put on big parties for artists, to a high, narrow old apartment in impoverished East Oakland.
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