Disposable Cup 2

Playing around with the ideas of SARS and bird flu news while working out compositional and technical questions. El Gallo from Loteria or "Mexican Bingo" in the bottom right hand corner was created using a stencil and pastel shavings. I was thinking of Warhol's repetition of imagery in the media.

Disposable Cup 1

The juxtaposition of found text in the newspapers is sometimes surprising and often entertaining. I use coffee cups metaphorically in my work for the mundane, every day routines that we get used to and often overlook or don't think much about.

Coffee Cup 1

The division of space is important to all works of art and it is something I enjoy working with quite a bit in mine. The text is from a Ray Charles song and some personal prose.

Three Coffee Cups

Working with a little mixed media to see how they interelate. Airbrushed watercolor, ink left, prismacolor center, and oil pastel right.

Small Child

Pastel drawing from a photograph of my daughter as a small child. Just playing around with value and arbitrary color.

Outhouse (winter)

Ok, from time to time I delve into the kitsch. This sketch was for a small series of three seasons as seen at my studio in ND. "Why an outhouse?" you might ask: No, this is not my studio!- for some reason outhouses have gained popularity for aesthetic purposes, a quaint reminder of the past, I suppose.

Grapes

A pastel sketch used for a comission in about 'o1.

Apple

This is a small (6"X8") chalk pastel sketch from about ten years ago. After completing the drawing (working out the highlights, shadows, and pushing the color around to a satisfying and realistic form) I found the drawing itself lost some of that freshness of the original sketch. By reintroducing the loose contour lines the drawing regained some of its original life. My paintings still reflect this understanding and preference.

Mission Rhythm

I've always enjoyed the sketches of the masters because the sketch reveals a bit of the process and the urgency in the artwork. My work is an attempt to reveal the beauty of the sketch behind the painting. In a way, my recent work is inverting a painting; turning it inside out, so to speak, so that one can see the idea and the work behind the painting rather than just the finished work.