Duel

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Duel

Oil on Birch, 2010, 14"x 36"x 14"

sold

Another in my split screen dilemma series. The shooters are facing off when viewed head on but as you move they aren't really aiming at each other. A hare is crouching in the landscape and they are physically aimed at that, but will the bullets travel through the painting? Did the painting conspire to make them shoot at each other? If they fire will the hares and each other all be doomed? Will they be frozen in paint for eternity or will they eventually fire? Its not for me to decide.

Sniper

Sniper

Oil on Birch, 2010, 15"x 60"x 15"

sold

This is the first piece I made in a new series of paintings. I have tried to set up a dilemma of sorts, with a lot of different outcomes depending on how you view the painting both physically and mentally. First the painting is split in two and curved out toward the viewer, there is an action on either side of this split with a dubious outcome if viewed head on. But a lot of questions can arise from this. Will the painting itself stop the bullet? Did the universe conspire to reach out and interfere? If the painting is laid out flat does this change the bullets course? If viewed from the side you can't see the bullet or the soldier depending on where you're standing and everything is ok. Or is this just a way to pause time, and mentally save a life?

Cumulus Nimbus Rolls By

Cumulus Nimbus Rolls By

Oil on wood, 2010, 8" x 22" x 6"

sold

This is another in my series, with the split screen. The characters in this drama, an Apache indian and a union soldier, are fighting to the death with only the clouds and landscape as witnesses. An arm and leg are movable so the viewer can change to a certain degree the composition and possible outcome of the conflict.

The Calcified Tears Of A Heartbroken Giant - Chocolate Hills, Philippines

The Calcified Tears Of A Heartbroken Giant - Chocolate Hills, Philippines

Oil and pastel on wood, 40"x 60"

This piece grew out of a previous drawing I did called 'The Heartbroken Giant'. It turns out there is a real place in the Philippines called the Chocolate Hills that had a landscape reminiscent to the one I made for my drawing. After a little research on the interwebs, I was struck and excited by the similarities to the backstory I had made up for my original drawing and the local folklore. The hills individually are referred to as the calcified tears, while the whole area is known as the Chocolate Hills. They are grass covered limestone that turn brown in the dry season, and there are 1,776 of them, a fact I just discovered, and is of course a number of great importance in this country.

Waiting For A Stallion

Waiting For A Stallion

Mixed Media, 2010, 32"x 32"

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This piece was a part of a show where notable people from the city of Hamtramck Mi. wrote down their dreams and gave them to different artists around town. This is my interpretation of one of the dreams I was given by Steve Cherry founder of a local radio station. In the dream (really a nightmare) while out in a wide open space a wild horse trampled his wife and she was stuck or buried in the ground and he thought they should wait for help and his wife who was calm, agreed. There was a little more to it but that was basically the jist of it.

So I decided to use as elements in my piece the horse, the hole, the wife and the wide open space. On some earlier pieces I was trying to do artwork inside artworks (smaller drawings or paintings that are part of the finished piece but have an independence to them), and I decided to do that here as well. I could make an entirely independent artwork using the concept of the hole that the wife is in.

So to create some depth and make an actual hole I made a curved picture frame and bent some birch plywood into it. I then cut out a horse shape and that made a kind of mat for my drawing of the horse. The bent shape of the wood distorted around the horse cutout which I think made a nice effect, and the curved shape of the piece also provided enough depth to make a diorama out of the "hole" (she is in a hole but not really, just a diorama).

She is now a wood carving smoking a metal nail for a cigarette. The horse is above her "trampling", the 2-dimensional background where the horse is and the more fleshed out 3-dimensional background where the girl is, is the same. Maybe a different time of day or year or maybe her stallion will never come to trample her heart, but she is calm and waiting patiently.

Heading Home

Heading Home

Oil on wood

14"x 32"

Side A: Autumn Blues, Side B: Autumn's Child

Side A: Autumn Blues, Side B: Autumn's Child

Charcoal and pastel on paper, 2009, 25"x 43"

sold

This piece I was trying an experiment of trying to do two separate images and making them into one cohesive piece. The smaller drawing is the same landscape as the one above except with a young family and the father strumming a tune on the guitar.

Heartbroken Giant

Heartbroken Giant

Charcoal and pastel on paper, 2009, 36"x 53"

sold

Burial Of Kong

Burial Of Kong

charcoal on paper, 2009, 32"x 32"(framed)

sold

This piece is modeled after the painting "Burial Of Count Orgaz" by El Greco, The image area is actually a shallow box and all the elements inside are cut out of paper or illustration board and arranged inside the box. For some unexplained reason I saw parallels between the painting and the end of this classic movie which I was obsessed with for a while. Kong represents a lot of things, including nature and the animal instinct in all of us. As a society when we kill that connection to the primitve or the unconcious animal nature, we are all diminished. We cannot conquer it because it is part of ourselves, either that or I don't know what I'm talking about.

Sunday Softball #1

Sunday Softball #1

Oil on wood board, 2009, 10"x 16"

sold

Part 1 of a 5 part sequential series following a pitch being thrown to a batter on a beautiful summers day. I designed each painting to work compositionally on its own as well as part of the group. Parts 3 and 4 are the only pieces left from this series. 

This 2009 painting is self hanging.

Sunday Softball #2

Sunday Softball #2

Oil on wood board, 2009, 10"x 16"

sold

Part 2 of a 5 part sequential series following a pitch being thrown to a batter on a beautiful summers day. I designed each painting to work compositionally on its own as well as part of the group. Parts 3 and 4 are the only pieces left from this series. 

This 2009 painting is self hanging.

Sunday Softball #3

Sunday Softball #3

oil on wood board, 2009, 10"x 16"

click here to purchase

Part 3 of a 5 part sequential series following a pitch being thrown to a batter on a beautiful summers day. I designed each painting to work compositionally on its own as well as part of the group. Parts 3 and 4 are the only pieces left from this series. 

This 2009 painting is self hanging.

Sunday Softball #4

Sunday Softball #4

Oil on wood board, 10"x 16"

click here to purchase

Part 4 of a 5 part sequential series following a pitch being thrown to a batter on a beautiful summers day. I designed each painting to work compositionally on its own as well as part of the group. Parts 3 and 4 are the only pieces left from this series. 

This 2009 painting is self hanging.

Sunday Softball #5

Sunday Softball #5

Oil on wood panel, 2009, 10"x 16"

sold

Part 5 of a 5 part sequential series following a pitch being thrown to a batter on a beautiful summers day. I designed each painting to work compositionally on its own as well as part of the group. Parts 3 and 4 are the only pieces left from this series. 

This 2009 painting is self hanging.