Narcissus Mutilated

Mirror Pond

2' x 3'

Acrylic and charcoal on panel

This is another series I'm exploring, central themes being groups of men and water.  The series started out as swimmers floating in space, evolving into a means of exploring group psychology, and is now evolving further, I guess into nebulous realms, at least I hope so.

I don't know what the paint means anymore, it use to be a tool to achieve photo-realism but I find that less and less (and less) appealing as times goes on.  Now it seems like a tool for experimentation and I am concerned about the variability of paint, thick/thin, washes and gobs of paint, brush strokes..

Bombs (away)

Bomber
4' x 4'
Acrylic and charcoal on panel

Part of an ongoing exploration of airplane bombers.  They are ominous, powerful bits of metal and screws  flying through the sky heralding widespread destruction with the click of a button.  Sometimes I think about things while painting:  with this painting the airplane became a symbol of technological advancement as means of destruction of those less technologically advanced.  If I didn't have such a penchant for history I'd probably be painting robotic weapons.

Excerpts from a sketchbook, Cont'd.

Some excerpts from a sketchbook on a recent "Urban Hike" with some friends to the Shakespeare Garden in Washington Park.  The first sketch is some blind contour drawings of people who came to the park to view the gardens, it was amazing how many people occupied the space in the 15 - 20 minutes that spanned the drawing (temporality).  The second is some Jewish women sad over the deaths of loved ones, with Elmo running around in the background?  I guess I haven't tired of gluing trash into my sketchbooks.  Oh, trash..

Vague and indecipherable. Mystery.

Untitled

24 x 24

Acrylic and charcoal on panel

I don't know what to title my paintings anymore, maybe I just don't think it's important.  I kind of like it vague and indecipherable these days. "Mystery".

Charlie's Girls

Excerpt of a drawing titled Charlie's Girls
12x12
Mixed media on paper

Emotional States

New small works listed for sale over at House of Travis.

Janet Julian at the Bathtub Art Museum

You know you're in Portland when you go to a friends art show and it's at a, uh, museum in a bathtub.

Fun and funky and Janet Julian for sure.  You crawl into the bathtub, in the middle of which you stand up in to have half of your upper body in a treehouse-like building where you find the art!

 

Janet's work is great, it's got a sense of whimsy, maybe absurdity, and it's always a little crazy (in the good way).  I imagine Janet in her workspace staring at something wondering how it will be completed and then a light turns on and she runs around looking for something and glues it in place!

Janet's one of my favorites.

Sleeping 7
4 x 4

Acrylic and charcoal on canvas

The one's available over at House of Travis!

Old Boys Club

Old Boys Club

24 x 24

acrylic and charcoal on panel

Another recurring theme, houses on fire, this time replete with a bunch of men standing around not doing a damn thing. While The World Burns. Some have suggested that the houses on fire are due to an experience in my youth, my family's duplex burned. I guess that could be partially true. The burning houses are about the sense of "home" being lost. I think there are parallels with economic collapse as well, mother nature taking her toll, ..

I don't know if this painting is complete yet. It feels like it's almost there but needs some refinement however I don't want the refinement to come at the cost of the immediacy of the painting. These are the dilemma's one faces!

Shirts, Skins, Wieners, Pee

Shirts, Skins, Wieners, Pee
24 x 36
acrylic and charcoal on panel

Part of my continuing obsession with riffing on vintage yearbook photographs.  Identity: group dynamics, gaining something, losing something.

Emasculating men.

Do you know the quickest way to scare way an average heterosexual male?  Point out a man his age peeing himself.  He'll laugh at his discomfort and saunter on.  True story.