"Egg No.1", 14x19", oil on canvas

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"Fruit Tart", 45x36", oil on canvas

Finding beauty in the ordinary, simple and mundane. Although, I normally wouldn't call something this appetizing "mundane" (I have one hell of a sweet tooth) it is stark and simple compared to today's luxury items. Not to mention, from a compositional standpoint, very symmetrical... save for the corner of the table. There was a time when this would have been exorbitantly luxurious. "Let them eat cake"...... In an ever growing materialistic society that evolves and promotes ad hoc at light speed, I find myself appreciating and gaining satisfaction from a slow study of the commonly overlooked.

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Beauty and Perception

"Ne Plus Ultra", Eric Swenson (2010)

A Facebook post I made sparked a small dialogue on beauty. As a teacher, I see it as my job not to just inundate with terms and vocabulary, but to get the student to use that information to question their own perceptions of beauty. I usually begin by asking students how do they measure beauty in art and the usual answer they give is the artist's ability to render the subject matter representationally. Then I show them this image of a sculpture by Eric Swenson, "Ne Plus Ultra"(2010). The preceding effect is the smell of hair burning and the creaking of long motionless gears.

"He's touching me!"

"Dogfight", 45x36"

There are two methods of rendering imagery I have wrestled with in the studio. One, being the methodical, tight representational approach I learned as an ungrad and the other, a more expressionistic/gestural stroke which I found in graduate studies. Both have served me well, yet often I have felt like a big blue void with two skilled pilots trying to outmanuver one another and get the upperhand.

Oddly enough, the control I sought to reconcile this comes from a printmaking technique known as the state print. Whereby, the subject matter is worked on the plate, printed and then any forthcoming insights or alterations are reworked on the same plate. This creates beautiful and intriguing fields that allow the process and evolution to be presented in a series. This layering and meshing of stages has begun to allow me to teach my two demanding kids "discipline"..... or how to get along, stop squabbling in the backseat and allow me some peace.

New Year, New Work

"Expulsion of The Great Ape", mixed media, 45x36"

I wish kicking old habits were done so with the finesse and grace of Bruce Lee sailing bodies around a room. Truth is brother.... t'aint so. You try exiling them to the most remote places you can find or conjure....."No cable, no kids, no pets".They're always on your heels, no matter how hard or fast you run. Reminding you of what you wish you could forget.

"Ponce De Leon", mixed media, 45x36"

I was asked by a non artist friend why I paint. "Well it's not for money or praise.", I told him. Truth is, it makes me happy, content and the older I get, the fewer things I find in this world that do so. Also, I'm fascinated with the process of taking an idea and making it exist.... "Making something from nothing." Creating a myth.

" Hommage to Thiebaud", 36x45"

Why this? Why not?... I liked the lighting and textures involved. I lose myself in the observation, the interpretation, it becomes therapeudic. The technique is time consuming and lends itself to this. I actually completed this quicker than I thought I would have. Just three weeks from beginning to end, probably about 72 hrs altogether. I'm satisfied.

"Girl From Kenoma", 45x36"

Kenoma(Gk) - the lower world of phenomena, emptiness or void.