Sunset

Angler Fish

Seattle Skyline With Tentacles

Painted March 2015 as a commission.

Tiger Lilies - Georgetown Art Walk 2014

Painted at the Georgetown Art Walk, 2014

Love You to Death

I made this piece for an art show in February called "The Heartbreak Science Fair", curated by my friend Krista Wolf for InArtsNW on Olive & 17th. She asked me to participate, so this is what I designed. It hung with Heartbreaker. 

OctoSanta

These were pretty rad Christmas cards. 

Dia de los Muertos

Last October, Poco Wine Room in Capital Hill hosted their annual Day of the Dead and Halloween show. I asked a couple friends to pose for me while I painted them in Day of the Dead style. I usually do not paint portraits, but I love the way these came out. I'm planning more in the future.

I started with Rachelle. I went to her house and had her sit for me while I did quick base painting:

Then I went home and worked on the painting more to complete the final product:

I also asked Ryan and Jessica to come over and pose for me:

That piece sold that night! I was pretty dang excited. 

Cow Skull

For a long time, I've been fascinated with animal bones and skulls. I love the symmetry; I love thinking about the living creature that inhabited the bones, and I like to think about what its life was like. In this image especially, I wanted to explore the shape of the bones, and give the feeling of past/future cycles. A friend and his partner happened to have a cow skull in their backyard, so I made a date to go spend an afternoon painting outside with him.

This was definitely inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's cow skulls. She was one of the first artists to really inspire me, and I feel a strong connection to her work. I just love the way that she meshes reality with the sublime, there are so many ways to read her art. Her work is almost spiritual in its blending of realism and the (almost) surreal.

I was also inspired by a painting that I saw a long time ago at the San Diego Museum of Art, "After Many Days" by Thomas Hart Benton. It was hanging in the gallery on one of my first trips there, and this was one of the few paintings that really stands out in memory. The two tiny horses in the far distant background add so much to the story. Were they owned by the former inhabitant of the skull? Did he or she die while riding? Was this the person's farm? Who or what killed the person?

I love the idea of nature taking over again, and bodies (human or animal) feeding the earth, growing new life out of what has passed. Maybe that's why I love ghost towns and abandoned buildings so much also. The idea of our temporary existence is terrifying and beautiful all at once. We try so hard to control our environment, but eventually nature catches up.

Australian White Ibis

My mom was an ER nurse for 10 years when I was a child, and then she worked as a pre-op/post-op nurse for many years after that. She was born and raised in Western Australia, in a small farm town just northeast of Perth, called Mullewa. Her father was a commercial artist and her mother was a seamstress, but her parents moved away from the city and operated a sheep-shearing ranch before she was born. My mum, the youngest of three children, grew up on the farm, then went to boarding school and later studied nursing. She and a couple of girlfriends were working as nurses and traveling the world when she met my dad in San Diego.

She was very much a healer, and very much someone who loved to take care of her loved ones. She was very nostalgic, but also pragmatic in her beliefs. As a result of her years of nursing training, she knew that tragedy could strike unexpectedly and at any time. She saw families in turmoil when their loved ones passed without instructions about what to do in case of sudden death or serious injury. She was very adamant in her wishes: "If something happens to me, I do not want to be on life support. If I die suddenly, I want to be cremated and have my ashes spread over the farm where I was raised." She said this so often, that there was no doubt what to do when a blood clot hit heart suddenly on December 1, 2006.

The rest of my family and I were in utter turmoil. She was the glue that held us all together. She knew how to fix everything. We were suddenly lost and in more pain than any of us had ever imagined. But we knew what we had to do.

In August 2007, my dad, brother, sister and I boarded a plane in Los Angeles, bound to Sydney before continuing on to Perth the next day. We insisted on carrying our mother's ashes on the plane with us. The TSA tried weakly to say that human remains could not be carried on like that, but we would have none of that. She was not going in the checked luggage, damn it. My dad carried her on the plane and we kept her safe near us.

After 14 hours, we landed in Sydney around 8am. We spent that first day walking around the city, getting acclimated to the continent. We were fractured and injured, in pain and grieving, but we were together and carrying out out mother's greatest wish. We were bringing her home.

This painting was inspired by a photograph that I took that first afternoon in Australia, wandering around a strange continent with my dad, brother and sister. I looked up and saw this beautiful bird in one of the trees and snapped a photo.

Out of much pain, comes art.

Seattle Under Attack! Toss Me A Fish!

I came up with the idea to paint Seattle with a variety of sea creatures in the middle of the city. It started with the peaceful scene of downtown I painted early last summer. Then, last fall, I painted the Space Needle. Now, this:

Poor guy just wanted a fish! 

I started painting this at the end of 2013 and finally finished in March, right in time for the last Bemis Building Art Show. Before I started this piece, I had no idea that rendering architecture would be so challenging.  I literally spent hours painting the same line and angles over and over again, and I was extremely happy when that was finished.  

I told myself that I would not paint anymore architecture after that, but I've already got a few new pieces in the works... 

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are probably my favorite flowers. I love the way their colors contrast against the blue sky, the way the seeds swirl in a Fibonacci sequence, and their ability to thrive in a variety of places. 

Fabulous Tentacle Glassware

Back at Christmas time, I was trying to think of gifts to make for friends and family. A friend and I spent an afternoon at Goodwill, combing through the glassware on sale, and the idea of glass painting was born. I found some good glass paints (Vitrea 160) at my favorite art supply store, and started painting. The great thing about these glass paints is that the paint sets after cooking for 45 minutes in a regular oven at 325 degrees. After that, the glass is dishwasher safe.

Samo loves her tentacle glass! 

I made a set of martini glasses and a set of wine glasses.

For your rum

So many octopuses! So many tentacles!

The flower glasses are coming out great also. 

I'm gearing up for Punk Rock Flea Market, June 4th, where I'll have a table. I'll be selling these glasses, some prints and cards of my paintings, and my Dinos and Gatos de los Muertos. And Samo's going to be selling some flower pots and jewelry made from old computer parts. It's always a fun time. Stop by and say hi! It's only $1 to get in, and all the proceeds from door sales go to the Low Income Housing Initiative. 

These were commissioned upon request. 

Seattle Under Attack! The Space Needle

Don't be afraid, it's only Cthulhu saying hello to the Space Needle. He loves Seattle so much, he wants to give us a big hug. 

See? 

It's OK, really... Just another rainy day in Seattle. Nothing special...


16" x 20"
Acrylic on Canvas
$275

Watercolors: Camping at Wild Sky Wilderness

I went camping with a couple good friends last weekend and decided to bring my watercolors out as an experiment. I first taught myself to paint with watercolors sometime back when I was in high school. It was inexpensive and I had some watercolors at my disposal. And, my mom and grandfather were both watercolor painters, so it's in the blood. In about 2003, I started painting with acrylics and never thought I would go back. 

"Watercolors are hard!" I told myself, "You don't have that skill," I could hear my inner voice telling me. I put the paints away and concentrated on other mediums. But I pulled out the watercolors again last weekend because they would be easier to clean while out camping. I bought myself a new pad of watercolor paper and brought it all out on the camping trip. I painted with the river water. It felt like rediscovering an old friend. I was comforted by the sound of the river, and the paints spread more easily than I remembered. There is still a lot to learn, but I like the way that these paints feel. I'll be doing more of this soon.

Morning in the Forest

I find inspiration in many different places. National Geographic Magazine is a tremendous source of images that I use to spur creativity. I found this photo online and fell in love:

I used that as an impetus to create this painting:

This piece took a total of about 12 hours to complete. I spent about 4 hours working on blending the colors for the sky in the background, then I spent about another 4 hours on the trees and leaves. Yesterday, I set up my easel on the back porch for about 4 hours to work in the sunlight, and completed the deer and plant life in the foreground.

At 30" x 36", this is the largest canvas I have worked on yet.

Art Panels for Burning Man

I can't go to Burning Man this year, but I'm sending some art out to the desert. My friend Christina asked me to spend the day with her a couple weeks ago, working on some art panels that will become part of a maze that they are installing as their project, the Seattle CORE Project.

Each panel in the maze is 2' x 8', and we painted both sides of one panel, which took most of the day. It was great to spend the day out, collaborating together. I think that our styles and ideas meshed pretty well, too.

We came up with the idea to have a fire theme on one side and a water theme on the other side:

I love that I can't even tell where her art began and mine ended. We were able to mesh it together very nicely, which is not a super easy task, if you have ever worked on a project with other people. But this worked out quite nicely, and even though I cannot attend the actual event, I am happy that a small part of me will be there and be enjoyed by other attendees. 

I love the idea of temporary art. That is one of the main things that drew me to Burning Man initially; the idea that everything is temporary, and we must make the most of the precious time that we have here on this temporal plane. As an artist, I want to create beautiful things, and I crave the company of other creative humans. I often get very attached to my work, but I am learning one of the labors in life is letting go of that which you are attached to and moving forward to new discoveries, new creations, and new realizations, whilst holding on to that which makes you a vital, essential human... Every day is a new experience, and we build upon what we feel is important while leaving behind what we deem of lesser value. And that is different for every human, so we are constantly striving to balance our needs and values, both with and against other humans' needs and values.

These wood panels will be installed for the week of the event at the end of August, then everything will be burned in a huge effigy, as is tradition. The desert is slowly transformed from a barren ancient lakebed, to a beautiful thriving city, to a lakebed again, with no trace of the event that took place there. It is an annual reminder of the temporal, momentary nature of our lives. I love the poetry in that.

Seattle Under Attack! The Monster of South Lake Union

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Gasworks Park and painted the view of downtown from there:

It was a very peaceful, beautiful day. Until that pesky sea monster decided to come out again!

While this is actually a freshwater lake, I happen to know that this is a very smart sea monster. It came in through the Ballard Locks.



Acrylic on Canvas
22" x 28"
$450

Fremont Solstice Parade

On June 22, 2013 several friends gathered to paint ourselves and ride bikes through Fremont, as is tradition for the start of the Fremont Solstice Parade. My friend Alex Garland was there and took tons of great photos, though we missed each other in the swarms of people. 

While there was an "official" painting party in Fremont before the start of the race, we hosted a smaller event at my house where my friends and I could paint each other in a smaller, quieter setting while we soothed our anxious our nerves. 

The paintings turned out great! There are some incredibly creative people here in Seattle. In our group alone, we had several themes: me, as my art; a shark; Rosie the Riveter; and a peacock:

I went as my own art. I covered myself in blue paint, and then I asked my friends to paint me as their interpretations of my art. This is the result: 

One of my friends asked me to paint him as the earth and sky with a big sun across the shoulder:

Inspired by my Jellyfish painting, one of my friends added a great jellyfish to my leg: 

One of the highlights of the day for me was meeting the artist Henry. I love this man's work, and it was really inspiring to meet him.

Dinos de los Muertos

A couple of weeks ago, I bought some paper mache dinosaurs at a local artist supply shop and started painting them. I am calling the series "Dinos de los Muertos". These are the first dinos I have done, and I am pretty satisfied with the effect. I want to make enough of these to be able to sell them at the next Punk Rock Flea Market in December. 

Now Showing at Makeda Coffee!

I just installed my paintings at Makeda Coffee in Greenwood the other day. What a warm, inviting space! I love the layout, and the overall vibe is just wonderful. I hope you all can come in and check it out, it will be up for the next month.

Also, I will be at the coffee shop for the next Greenwood Art Walk on Friday, June 14th. There will be beer and wine available, and tons of art! Come stop by, say hello, and check out the great local art and shops in the area!