Crow Longboard - August, 2011
Acrylic on longboard, about 12"x46"
Located at: Private Collection (SOLD)

This was an experiment for a friend who loves crows, and even owned a pet crow in his youth. The topside is based on a photograph that he took of several crows in a tree. It is meant to be muscular and visceral foliage blending into stormy crow-filled skies. Crows at sunset, just before they migrate.

In one of Van Gogh's last paintings, "Wheatfield with Crows", the crows are supposed to be symbolic of death and rebirth. The bottom side of the deck is a pair of crows at night. It reminds me of airbrushed 1970's van-art but the intention was to execute it more like Van Gogh's starry night.

One interesting thing about crows is that you rarely see them alone - they seem to hang out in pairs. Yes, they mate for life, but they hang out in pairs or groups because they are social animals and recognize that, for their purposes community is stronger than solitude. It's fascinating to watch a pair of crows working together to open a container or protect their babies.

If longboards had a third side, I'd do one of a series of crows doing that funny Charlie Chaplin drunken dictator stagger when they walk across streets. Or maybe crossing Abbey Road a là the Beatles.

I painted over the grip tape and stickers with acrylic - I was too lazy to remove it, but I thought it would add some nice texture. Then I coated the whole thing in several coats of resin and about a half-inch of resin. Resin is tricky to work with but it gives an incredibly durable albeit slippery surface. Good thing there's clear grip tape.

Poster for Children's Literature Course - July, 2011
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 12" x 18"

This is an illustration for a course poster for a Children's Literature class. The title and theme of the course was Sense, Sin, & Suspense in Children's Literature and it was based on a Lewis Carroll quote from Alice in Wonderland: "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense."

So the lovely little Alice-girl is reading a book and imagining her house turning into a bird and flying away. Imagination is the best part of childhood, isn't it? When you don't know it, you imagine it.

In the final poster version, I scanned and digitally edited the poster image so it was longer and had more space between Alice and the house-bird. Alice became much smaller and the house-bird much farther away to accommodate the text.

Poster Illustration for "Writers Are Sexy" Writing Contest - July, 2011
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 20" x 15"

The slogan for the writing contest was "Writers Are Sexy" so this tongue-in-cheek illustration features a couple of personified writing tools in a suggested post-coital setting, complete with rumpled pages and spilled ink. The male pen is, of course, a Bic.

Banned Books Course Illustration featuring Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and Lolita - July, 2011
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 15" x 20"

This is an illustration used for an English class poster advertising a course in Banned and Censored Books. It features two characters from the studied texts, American Psycho's Patrick Bateman (by Bret Easton Ellis) and Nabokov's title character, Lolita, in a sort of True Romance mashup breaking free from a locked-up book. Lolita's sprinkler scene mirrors Bateman's blood-spatter scene.

Anger is an Energy - March, 2010
Collage and Acrylic on 90lb paper, 9" x 12"

This is a mixed media collage I did as a poster background to advertise a course in "angry" novels. The paper dolls are cut from the Jones and Smith pages of the phonebook and pasted on art paper and outlined. Then I emphasized and embellished one of the dolls and made it a bit more angry-individual. Sometimes conforming can make one resentful and angry, and sometimes that anger gets turned outwards. The theory is that every once in a while, certain people who seem so normal on the outside just snap, get angry, and rebel.

Wild Party Promo - February, 2010
Acrylic on 90lb paper, 9" x 12"

This was a proposed poster illustration to advertise a musical called The Wild Party. The musical is based on an epic, book-length poem written by Joseph Moncure March in 1928. The poem was widely banned for being too risqué.

I enjoy doing Film Noirish studies. This one was also inspired by Tamara de Lempicka's Marjorie Ferry portrait, so it ended up being kind of a combination of Film Noir and Art Deco.

Film Noir Study - July, 2009
Acrylic and Sharpie on 90lb paper, 12" x 9"

This was for a course poster. It has the classic Film Noir elements: stark lighting -- often stripey, as in a jail cell or moonlight filtering through Venetian blinds, a femme fatale, a gun, and bullet holes. You can already imagine the story.

Yearning - February 7, 2008
Acrylic on Canvas, 48" x 24"
Located at: Beaumont Studios

The nature of yearning is that a tiny part of you secretly believes that the event, person, or thing for which you yearn may be attained. Otherwise, it becomes grief. Grief is yearning without hope. So I painted this one for a few reasons:

• A Remodernist project where the intent was to create and submit works with the title and subject matter of "Yearning." The Remodernists reject current artworld trends and cynical, academic Post-Modern theory; they embrace the original, humanistic pursuits of early Modernism. Short version: art should still have some aesthetic properties, not be just a blank canvas or someone's unmade bed in the Tate.
• I enjoyed using the orange, pink, and purple palette in my Kamloops Winter picture so much that I wanted to do something like that again with a different kind of landscape (figural). Yes, I fully realize that this particular color combination will not match *anyone's* decorating scheme save for a 1970s bordello.
• Anyway, there were a few other reasons that led me into figural territory once again, but we'll leave it at that.

Charlie "Bird" Parker - November 26, 2006
Acrylic on Canvas, 20" wide X 30" tall
Located at: Beaumont Studios

Source from Charlie Parker at Birdland, New York, 1949.

Charlie Parker, 1920-1955, was arguably the greatest saxophonist of all time and a founding father of bebop. Brilliant, addicted, died at age 35. The photo was taken in 1949 at the nightclub named after him.

This is my first portrait in - what, twelve years? It was a little difficult to work from black and white scanned newsprint; I had to make up some of the lines. I did this one for John who is a big fan of jazz and jazz portraits in general. The face is pretty realistic compared to the rest of him, but I haven't learned how to abstract faces and leave them recognizable without veering into caricature territory. It looks like him in that anyone who is familiar with that photo will recognize the layout, I guess. I wanted to focus on the face and the saxophone and get lots of warm high-impact color in there. I'm not entirely happy with the likeness, but I wanted to move on to other things.

Portraits are fiddly... you keep wanting to play with them long after they're officially done. I know there was at least one time this weekend when I scrounged up my crumpled-up disposable palette paper out of the garbage to add a few more highlights. There's always some minute detail to play with. I'm done for now, though.

Progression is here.

Blue Jazz (1994)
Goache on Paper,
Located at: Home

Blue Jazz Lady is poster-sized. I always liked this one. The subject pose came from a book of photography and is ca. 1920s or 30s.

People always paint jazz musicians playing; this is of someone listening.

Waiting For (1993)
Goache on Paper, 8.5" wide X 11" tall
Located at: Home

I got the source photo out of another photography book - it may have been black and white. I just liked her expression and what she was wearing. It seemed so colorful and eccentric.

Corpse (1993)
Goache on Paper, 8.5" wide X 11" tall
Located at: Beaumont Studios

This one, ca '93, is still a favorite in my inner goth world. It's a painting of a mummified corpse. I was intrigued by the position and the "scream" effect. I used to pull it out and post it on the door on Hallowe'en. I had some buttons made that I called, "This Too Shall Pass"