Wednesday, December 24, 2014



Some art words I made for the elementary school for their show at the Akron Museum of Art.
I thought it was really was a great idea to display children's artwork in a professional setting. Sometimes when you change the environment of the artwork, you can see the work in a different way.

Sunday, October 26, 2014


All my work has a history rooted in previous work I've done or something I've seen along the way.  I can't isolate any piece and say that it exists alone without it belonging to a progression or path or derived from something I like or was interested in.  These two latest pieces stem from work I've done in the past with strong contrast of light and dark. My first interest of these images I did in charcoal. These are done in acrylic and spray paint.  I think the drama is what interestes me in these pieces, also when the light hits the object it indicates and emphasizes certain features while the rest of the image blends into the background without a definite point of where it ends.


Tuesday, September 30, 2014


This is photo-collage painting #3 and is called "Red Geraniums".  In this  painting I opened up the space with white areas.  This is a nice change for me from some of my other paintings where they seem to be a little filled up.  Even though I'm working from a collage it is especially exciting for me to see these paintings develope.  I make changes along the way from the original collage allowing the painting to speak to me along the way, guiding me.

Friday, September 26, 2014


This painting was created backwards.  The trees are actually painted first.  They were masked out and then I painted the background and middleground on top of the masked out trees.  When the painting was dry I unmasked the trees and I was seeing the whole painting for the first time.  It was like opening up a Christmas present.



This painting 5in by 5in made for Tampa Museum of Art Exhibition to raise money for artist grants and programs.  I have been making quick small studies of houses in different settings as a variation on a theme.  This is the first painting derived from these studies. I like the way the idea developes and changes from its original stage.

Monday, September 1, 2014



I've been experimenting with collage for a long time now.  The previous collages except for. lady on the phone, were all done on the scanner.  I just take collage elements and move them around randomly on the scanner.  Each time I get a new image, and the images are infinite.  "House with Pumpkin" is an accumulation of all the collages I've done up to now.  Lady on the phone was my earlier attempt to put a collage into a painting.  Just recently, the collages have made more sense to me, to put into painting.  I use a different method than the scanner now.  I take collage elements and shift them around and I shoot photos of them.  Once again, the images are infinite.  The process in these reminds me of French Dada painter Jean Arp where he took cut out paper and let them fall randomly onto his working surface.  Chance played a big part in the final image, however it was still controlled with the shapes he used and how he let them fall.  My photo-collages are also controlled and chance.





Tuesday, August 19, 2014


By the water's edge.  Tlhe idea for this painting came from an experiment in throwing and splattering paint.  I took about 10 canvases outside on the grass on a hot sunny day (so they could dry quicker).  I started to toss and drip paint, but I was not happy with the results so I started brushing too.  My colors were muddy and ugly and I was not happy with the results again.  However, a surprise happened.  The peony plant nearby cast a shadow of leaves on one of the canvases,  and I ran and got my camera. The shadow on the canvas looked like leaves painted on the canvas and it looked like a forground to the painting.  I thought the shadow was so cool that I started putting the other canvases underneath  it and started photographing those too.  One particular painting worked well with the shadow which I thought would make a good forground tree, and the background would make a good sky.  But, as I looked at it harder I noticed that if I turned it upside down the background was not a sky but murky water.  And by the "Water's Edge" was born.

Sunday, August 3, 2014



This painting was a donation to the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center annual Bake Near the Lake.  It will be auctioned on Sep. 6th to help raise money for the center. This lighthouse is Old Orchard Shoal and was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy off  the coast of New York.  I wanted to paint it to help preserve its memory.  The design for this painting is generated from earlier lighthouses that I have painted such as the one I have included below of Marblehead.  I wanted to add some interest to the sky and water as opposed to a flat colors as in the previous ones. I was not sure how the designs would integrate with the lighthouse so I gave it a shot and I was fairly happy with the results.

Monday, July 7, 2014


The idea for this painting came to me when I was taking an art book back to the library.  I had flipped through the book a couple of times while I had it at home, but as I was walking it back to the library from my car I happened to flip through it one last time before I returned it, and as I flipped through it I caught a glimpse of a painting for a split second.  So, I flipped through the book again to find the painting before I returned it, but I couldn't find it again before I returned it (I think it was due that day).  So I returned the book and made a sketch to capture the idea for the painting.  Eventually, I did get a chance to find the page that the painting was on and it helped me finalize my own painting.


Every since I went to art school  I became interested in drawing the human figure and have been interested in it ever since.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

"2008"



The sign in front of the house sybolizes the condition the housing market was in starting in 2008.
I thought it would be interesting to incorporate the situation of our times into something I was already doing.  It seemed obvious since I was already painting pictures of houses.  So, now the painting is at Harris Stanton Gallery entered into an annual Absolute Art Auction to benefit the Akron Art Museum.  It is a silent auction from May 9th to May 16th raising money for the museum.  The auction closes on May 16 with a vodka tasting party.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014


I walked this path many times in the Cleveland Metroparks.  This place is definitely part of my life and I so I started capturing and photographing the park.  Deciphering the trees and woods  into shapes and organized groups of space to give the painting order was a big obstacle for me, until I was introduced to Wolf Kahn's paintings.  He took chaotic jumbles of woods and landscape into strong organized compositions through color and shape.

Sunday, April 13, 2014


This is a drawing a did for Spaces Monster Drawing Rally yesterday, Saturday.  It's a live drawing event in which you have 1 hour to do a drawing or drawings in.  This is my first year participating and I didn't know exactly what to expect and as all things go it was a learning experience.  Most of all, it's a lot harder than it looks.  I only did one drawing because I ran out of time to do another one.  I see now the changes that I would like to make, however, as you finish the drawing at the Rally the drawings are then displayed on the wall and for sale to raise money for Spaces with no going back.  I hope I can do this again next year, but I think I'll be alittle more prepared.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

I have a sketchbook that is about 3 feet thick and getting bigger everyday. But my painting process is really slow.  The ideas are there, but translating them into paint takes alot of time and thinking.  Time is something I don't have enough of, something I think everybody can relate to at some point or another.  Another thing with painting is that I need alot of concentration when I'm working on them and if I'm not in the correct state I cannot paint.  These sketches I did on an electronic drawing tablet.  When I print them they look different than on the tablet which is kinda cool because the hard copy is abit of a surprise from the original drawing. The lines are thinner and seem more expressive when I print them.