as a developing painter and ardent defender of the sublime in art. Montreal, 1989–1992 In 1988, while still at the University of Florida, Magalios decided to move back to his native Montreal and take a year-long break from studies. Arriving in 1989 Magalios began a series of black and white semi-figurative paintings on masonite panels and ink drawings on paper. None of the paintings are believed to be still in existence as the artist has never mentioned them in any of his lists of works. In 1990, Magalios painted the first, of what would continue to be his most important series of Autumn-themed paintings. The work was a red-orange series of "leaves" on multiple 2x4 studs of wood that were individually screwed into a wall to become both a sculptural and painterly work. In 1991 Magalios began site-specific installations that consisted of assemblages of street trash from his Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood. The assemblages would take the form of traditional Hindu Siva-Sakti lingam sculptures. This return to sculpture was inspired, in part, by a sense of existential homecoming the artist felt after living away from Montreal for 15 years. It was during the same year that the artist returned to complete his bachelor's degree at Concordia University. While there he was introduced to the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean Baudrillard, two thinkers who would play a strong role in forming Magalios's vision of the world that combined a penchant for a critical approach to perception and politics with an affirmation of the light and darkness of living. San Francisco, 1992–1997 In 1992 Magalios moved to San Francisco and was instantly influenced by the dramatic landscapes of the Pacific Coast and the Sierra Nevada, as well as by the atmosphere of kindness, friendship, and creativity in the Bay area. During this period he devoted himself almost exclusively to a series of guerilla site-specific installation works in both rural and urban settings. The works were often ephemeral in nature and largely influenced by artists such as Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy. He also continued experimenting with a series of paintings on cardboard and canvas that explored a minimal use of painterly brush strokes in the earth colors of the ground palette. In 1993 George Magalios enrolled in the Master's program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Department at San Francisco State University. He would write his thesis on the views of art and technology