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6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • Let me situate this scene for you: If you were standing looking at the Buddhist temple entrance, the one in my last two paintings, and then panned to the left along the temple's walls, you would come to this lonely fire escape. That's the best I can do for you, being directionally challenged myself. After painting this, I did come up with a nifty slogan for a bumper sticker: "I like painting fire escapes. I also like bashing my head in with bricks." Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? The details involved and the painting decisions they force you to make, can drive you a bit mad. For example, instead of showing shadow fields consisting of fine sharp lines with actual fine lines, I had to rendered them utilizing value changes. There is a joke in there somewhere about my lack of values, but it is Friday and I will spare you.
Posted November 30, 2012
sold • private collection sun city, az
24"x16" oil on canvas. • Just thought I would doubly torture you by placing yesterday's painting alongside today's. It gives you a sense of scale and how I go even more totally and absolutely insane when I have knives in my hands and a palette covered with juicy paint at my disposal. There should probably be a law against somebody like me having access to paint. If it wasn't knives and brushes, it would be sticks, if not sticks, then my fingers and I would die from cancer from exposure to the paint and The Spousal Unit would get rich selling her dead husband's paintings. Wow, I think I just went off track there and should probably erase that last sentence before it gives her any ideas. Where was I... Oh yeah. To get really technical with you here, you know what I like about painting with knives? I know that you think I am going to answer, "How they allow me to trowel on mass quantities of paint and drag mercilessly to see what the colors will do." While that is all true, what I really like about them is the fact that I do not have to wash them; just a quick wipe, and I'm done. Yes, I am that lazy. • The color experimentation is pushed more on the larger piece, but I think you can see hints of that experimentation even on the little one. My insanity has no prejudice against size.
Posted November 28, 2012
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • The above is a study to see if this could possibly work as a larger painting. I have always wanted to paint this unique member of downtown Los Angeles history. It hasn't been an active temple for quite some time and actually did a stint as the home of the Japanese American National Museum. Now, it sits across a square from the current modern museum, hitting you with its lonely stare. The facade is at once exciting and boring; a good challenge for a painter to bring who they are as an artist to the subject. Me? I felt like the dang thing was flipping me the bird—in its quiet buddhist way—challenging me to paint it, so I spackled it. The little one seemed to work out well enough, so I went ahead and painted a larger version. If I don't kill my evil camera in the process of taking the photo, I will torment you with an image tomorrow.
Posted November 27, 2012
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • Yet another of the booze bottles recovered during one of my morning constitutionals, making me appear in a bad light to my neighbors. Actually, my 'light' couldn't get much worse with my neighbors. Appearing to drink an entire bottle of booze before 7 AM wouldn't do much damage to my already sullied reputation. But I ask you, who could resist picking up such a beautiful bottle, even if it made you appear to have an ongoing early morning drinking 'issue?' It is the inebriated litterers they should be tsk, tsking, not the artist so easily distracted by shiny things (and chickens, chickens are great).
Posted November 21, 2012
sold • private collection brookline, ma
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • I humbly present to you my other Brownie Starflash camera—I have only the two, red and blue. All I can say about this camera (especially with its flashbulb in place) is, "Blue, blue, blue, and more blue." When you look at the camera straight on, the entire chrome-ish flash dish thingamabobber goes entirely blue. Don't know why I chose to attack it straight on, maybe I was in the mood for self-inflicted torture or feeling up to the challenge of trying to see variations in all that dang blue. While the former reason is probably the truth—which speaks to my sanity or lack thereof—I like to think of myself as being up to the visual challenge. I know, it's delusional, but it's all I got.
Posted November 19, 2012
sold • private collection bradbury, ca
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. • Only a handful of the old radios I paint were actually my father's. This was one of his. By the way, H and J are not my father's initials, they belong to the person who acquired the painting. • Collectors are funny. If he were still alive and I asked him if he had any old cameras, phones, or bottles, etc. laying about, my father would reply, "What the hell would I have any of those for?" Actually, I do not know if you would have called him a 'true' collector. He didn't gather much stuff and objects were not all that important to him—people were. He was happy as long as the electricity was flowing, his truck started on the first crank, and his wife was happy (and not spending money on QVC). • I think this radio is pretty cool.
Posted November 15, 2012
sold • private collection myrtle beach, sc
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • If you remember, in one of my past ramblings I mentioned that poor ol' Darth Vader was blasted to bits across our domestic universe. Our first desperate searches turned up only three helmets. Basically, Darth had been repeatedly decapitated by the Rebel Trooper we lovingly call Spawn Number Two (The Spare). Further searches found two lonely bodies. Spawn Number One (The Heir) then proceeded to tell me, at great length, about the difference between the two torsos; one being older with different markings and actually having a different head, etc., etc. Of course, being the attentive, deeply caring father that I am, all I heard was, "Blah, blah, blah." Resulting in me snapping, "Just give it here, I want to paint." Since Darth went for so long without his head, I thought the above pose quite apropos. Poor Darth..
Posted November 14, 2012
sold • private collection manalapan, nj
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • While it might be enjoyable to talk about how this piece should have been entitled, "Behind Every Good Jedi Stands a Dedicated Droid Shaped Like a Trash Can," I think I would rather blather on about my aspirations to be a daily painter and what that pursuit has wrought. I say aspirations because, if you have followed my ramblings over the years, you will know that I do not claim myself to be a true daily painter, but rather to being an 'almost' daily painter. After all, I must put aside time to yell at The Spawn and to consistently annoy the goddess who, for some unknown reason, condescends to live in the same home with me. (Seriously, why she puts up with a guy constantly complaining about his debilitating chronic Cookie Deficiency Syndrome (CDS) is beyond me.) • One thing daily painting does is change the way an artist observes the world around them. For a person who always considered himself pretty observant, I can honestly say that I have become much more so and that I also view my surroundings in a different manner. For example: This increased power of observation has made me completely change my opinion about something. That something is English ivy. My long established opinion of that prolific plant was based on much personal experience informing me that it is good for one thing and one thing only: Providing a nice home for rats. Due to observations made during my daily constitutionals, I have discovered a new use for English ivy. When planted along the roadside and allowed to bush up, it becomes an attractive trash dump. Humans blithely throw their empty bottles (and other items I would rather not mention) into the ivy and just go on their merry way. So, when a neighbor trims down their ivy, it reveals a treasure trove of glass bottles. Bottles that may be used as subject matter for my painting smears. This brought on another revelation: My area is populated with litterbugs who have tremendously bad taste in beverages and cologne. • Looking back at the above rant, I feel I must apologize for its painful length–sorry.
Posted November 9, 2012
sold • private collection galena, oh
20"x16" oil on canvas. • I make no attempt to hide my love of old telephones, so to shut me up, my buddy Scott loaned me this old one. It weighs as much as a VW Beetle (seriously, this thing weighs a ton) and is encrusted with age. The beauty sat around my studio for a good stretch of time whilst I thought about painting it. It may seem to be pretty straight forward, but trust me, none of my paintings are really all that straight forward. The disconnected and thrashed receiver combined with the awesomely thick patina posed unique challenges. Then, one day, I had a vision: Hang the receiver on a nail like a dead rat next to the phone. For marketing purposes, I later changed my description from "...like a dead rat" to "...like an archeological display or somethin' " and the painting sold. • On a different note: It looks like I will be having a one man gallery show next month. I will keep you posted as details develop.
Posted November 7, 2012
sold • private collection los angeles, ca
6"x4" oil on raymar panel. • Meet Han, or Mr. Solo—I forgot which he prefers. As I have said in the past, we have a ton of these little LEGO people lurking around our domicile. Dangerous, sharp-edged little so-and-sos. I had Spawn Number One reassemble some of the Star Wars characters for me to paint. He assures me they are correct in features, but I have my doubts. Anyway, Mr. Solo looked good, so here he is in oil paint. Spoiler Alert: I will be painting at least a couple more of these annoying little fellows soon. How many, and which ones, is yet to be determined. I have requested a Darth Vader, but poor Darth (all three of him) appears to have been blasted to bits and spread across the universe that is the Logan Household. We have a lead on his body being somewhere in the black hole that is a kid's bedroom.
Posted November 6, 2012
sold • private collection galena, oh
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. • Yes, the title is lame, but there is meaning behind it. The "Love" part is easy—I mean come on!—it's a freakin' 1959 Corvette, a veritable god (or goddess) of the road. The "Hate" part is due to the fact that this is the only car The Spousal Unit would, flat out, leave me for. Seriously, if this car came up and hit on her, she would be gone in a second. This particularly beautiful Corvette was showing itself off in the Village of Arroyo Grande and The SU was just drooling over it. The only thing that would have made it worse is if the thing was red. If it was red, it would not need to hit on her, she would be hitting on it. • Enough husbandly grumbling. Manly rivalry or not, the car posed a painting challenge, so it was hard to resist painting it. • Musical note: I think Shirley Horn became even better with age.
Posted November 2, 2012
sold • private collection west hollywood, ca
4"x6" oil on raymar panel. • Yes, the title is lame, but there is meaning behind it. The "Love" part is easy—I mean come on!—it's a freakin' 1959 Corvette, a veritable god (or goddess) of the road. The "Hate" part is due to the fact that this is the only car The Spousal Unit would, flat out, leave me for. Seriously, if this car came up and hit on her, she would be gone in a second. This particularly beautiful Corvette was showing itself off in the Village of Arroyo Grande and The SU was just drooling over it. The only thing that would have made it worse is if the thing was red. If it was red, it would not need to hit on her, she would be hitting on it. • Enough husbandly grumbling. Manly rivalry or not, the car posed a painting challenge, so it was hard to resist painting it. • Musical note: I think Shirley Horn became even better with age. 