it just FELT right...

The title I chose for this painting, that is.
Snake On A Plane -- has a ring to it huh? lol Oh, I tried variations like; Snake On A Felt Plane; Snake On A Plain Pooltable; Snake On A Pain-ting Surface and of course the most obvious title, "Watch out you butterflies, there's a snake eyeballing y'asses!" But in the end I just went with what felt right. [I love a good pun lol]

Snake On A Plane: 37"x35" acrylic on wood panel

Relics and Ruins

More charcoals from my Wastelands Suite and some oil paintings they led to...

Y.M.C.A.: 30"x22" charcoal on gray Rives BFK... I originally took this picture because I was fascinated by the abstract quality of the windows, and that led to a series of paintings, but eventually this charcoal led to my relic drawings which became much bigger than anything I'd done before.

Cross: 44"x30" charcoal on gray BFK heavyweight... I love the climbing depth in this one.

Field of Beams: 30"x22" charcoal on gray BFK ...this drawing led to several variations.

And a Stream Runs Through It: 47"x41" oil/wax/dry pigments on canvas

Rite de Passage: 30"x22" charcoal on gray BFK ...I gave this drawing to my cousin when he completed his 12 step program to kick drugs and alcohol. That was his rite of passage.

Rust In Pieces: 96"x119" oil on broken masonite

Entrance: charcoal and chalk on handmade gray paper

Marilyn Monroe

on graph paper in ink

made with dots and squares and Xs and Os

Collectables

Ever noticed that people collect the strangest things? Frogs and elephant figurines are a common collectable as well as porcelain clowns, roosters, those black and white moo-cows, Barbie dolls and Beanie Babies. The list is virtually endless I suppose. I collect billiard paraphernalia, and glass lenses (like from binoculars etc.), but they are mostly in my fish tank. I have a bunch of Neon Tetras (very small fish) and it's funny when one will swim behind a lens and appear to be a huge fish lol I never seen a fish move so fast! hehehe PETA doesn't monitor these blogs do they? That may constitue some sorta animal abuse idk... but it's hiarious.

Here are some of my pool balls. The center cage thingy is what they use to mix up the numbered balls for bingo. I had an old gumball machine filled with billiard balls but I sold it. I also made one filled with a huge array of dice that I had collected -- mostly regular dice of different sizes and colors but some were from games like Dungeons and Dragons and other card games. It was awesome. People love novelty stuff like that. If you look closely, you'll see one of my miniature pool table paintings is the lower right corner under the 11 ball. It's acrylic painted on wood -- now you know why my eyesight is failing lol... naw, but seriously it is failing. : (

wow, I thought you'd be able to see them better but the water has rendered them virtually invisible, crap! lol

okay you can actually see the crystal candy dish I put in there... the first pic I took I had the flash on and the damned fish freaked out... hehe they're hiding somewhere lol

here you can see the effect of one of the lenses from how the red die is distorted at the left

Futuristic Wastelands in Charcoal

I love the rich velvety black I can achieve with charcoal and I use erasers as mark making devices to lift the powdery black pigment and reveal progressively lighter gray tones beneath, kind of like pencils in reverse. 

It can be a notoriously messy medium but that's a relatively small price to pay for the wonderfully full bodied images you can create.

These are some of my enigmatic landscapes.

Alternating Currents: charcoal on gray Rives BFK heavyweight paper, 44"x30"

Posted Runes: charcoal on gray BFK, 30"x22"

Roll the Bones: charcoal on gray BFK, 30"x22" To make this drawing I cropped a tiny area from the cover of Rush's Roll the Bones CD.

My version is nothing compared to this original image by Canadian artist Hugh Syme, who has painted virtually every Rush cover since their third release, Caress of Steel in 1975. He has also designed cover art for Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Styx, Aerosmith and others. Having been nominated 18 times for the Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy), Syme has won the coveted trophy 5 times, including Best Album Design in 1992 for this album, Roll The Bones. Now, isn't art history fun? lol

Barry and Emmitt

When I was younger I was inspired by my favorite players in football. They just seemed to ooze with energy and I wanted my pictures to have that same feeling of urgency.

Barry Sanders: oil pastel on paper mounted on heavy cardboard

Number 20: pastels ink and Witeout on paper

Emmitt The Conqueror: Sharpie Witeout pastels

Picumferaphobia = Fear of Spheres

"If you can draw a circle then you can draw a ball." 

~ Mark Rothko

Andy Warhol is one of my heroes and I think he has thoroughly absorbed into my soul through the years because I tend to assimilate a little bit of him into my own work -- an homage to the greatest artist of the late 20th century.

"There is no such thing as cheating in art. I use any and every thing I can to bring an idea into this world. There is no cheating." 

~ Salvador Dali

I have a collection of billiard balls (some are antique) if you haven't already guessed hehe and they have been an endless source of inspiration. To the left of the tiny MandM pool table is a small brass and mother of pearl urn that holds the ashes of my little sister. I think the symbolism I meant to convey has a lot to do withe the balance between good luck (the 7 ball) vs. bad luck (the 13 balls). And even faced with overwhelming odds good always seems to triumph over evil, or at least we want to believe that.

 "I want you to feel a spiritual presence when you approach my sculpture as if it were a living being with a soul." 

~ Debora Butterfield

For Whom the Ball Rolls: pencil, 2009 -- When I doodle it is usually a random display of simple shapes (like spheres, cylinders and cones) which I describe through the use of shadow and light. Sometimes a doodle will slowly develop into a mature, polished work of art like this one. A collector in Denver bought this piece as a gift for her daughter's wedding. Here again is the theme of chance and luck referenced in the seven/eleven combination -- which plays a pivotal roll in Casino Craps (or Bank Craps), a popular dice game.

"Sure it's an iris but at the same time you should sense a part of me."

~ Georgia O'Keeffe

 

Felt of Personality/Turkish Blend: acrylic on wood -- cigarettes are another thing that had been a mainstay in my still lifes for years but since I quit smoking they may just be a relic of the past.

"One must sacrifice a part of oneself and I figured I didn't really need both ears." 

~ Vincent Van Gogh

The smaller painting of the jukebox, cue stick, neck-keys of a violin and the Coke sign is in a corporate collection in Wichita now. Coke products sell like a banshee but one must take care that the execs at Coca-Cola ne'er gets wind of their brand being exploited for monetary gain. Apparently the ruling class bastards frown upon us peasants having too much to eat at one time. lol

"I don't paint to show what I am looking for but rather to reveal what I have found." 

~ Pablo Picasso

Ball Crossing: enamel on aluminum -- I found this yield sign just laying there in a ditch, I SWEAR IT, THAT'S NO LIE!! Any-hoe, I thought it would be perfect for a simple painting of a rack.

"Ceramics can be unpredictable. Every clay piece is different just as every vagina is different." 

~ Judy Chicago