Currently I'm living in the woods of Alaska... but born in my father's art studio in Houston, Texas. Moved around a lot and try to preserve that as the status quo. Evidently, I describe myself in short incomplete thoughts and sentences, and like to think I'm a short incomplete person.
Of course, I have a family, a couple of cats, a few friends, whom I love deeply, however, most of them happen to be spread out across the country living their respective successful lives, but, on the whole, I prefer to maintain my privacy to the greatest extent possible in order to effectively obsess over my work. Making the decision, understanding that I wanted to paint...for the rest of my life, was a profound and freeing experience. I didn't have to worry about why I would never cut it in law school, or any professional educational training, or why I would never find fulfillment in a structured 9-5 setting. More importantly, I found something that I simply could not exist without in one form or another. If I could not paint with my hands, I would paint with my toes, or my mouth, or my eyelashes...
Well, to make a long story short...I love the absence of color, but I'm not an Industrial Goth, or Baby Bat. I don't own a pair of big black boots that look as scarred and abused as I feel and I don't wear capes or cloaks of any fabric for any occasion. The above picture was my first Medusa painting, oils, alla prima, almost a year ago. Probably my favorite go at symbolism, to date, although, I've completed dozens of more mature works, since, in everyone else's opinion...ugh. Still, it showed a dramatic creative leap from stodgy old realism to something fresh and highly personalized. Naturally, the face is merely a detail of a larger painting (roughly four feet in size), and the afore mentioned works following Medusa will not be included on this site, as they're considerably more morose and graphic in nature...
My mother is probably my greatest supporter in my artistic endeavors, and she owns the house I live in...She hasn't complained about the paint on the floors, or the cabinets, and she doesn't usually come by without calling, but if she does, she doesn't harp on me about the dishes in the sink, or the beer in my hands, or the wet canvases stretched across the kitchen and living room...I certainly realize how very lucky I am to have her as an advocate. I'll have to get around to finding a picture of her, soon, and posting it. Some people pick up certain physical features distinctive of their parents, and the same is true of me. Unfortunately, I literally inherited half of my mother's nose and half of my father's nose. The right is my mother's nostril. And the left is my father's huge round gaping nostril! Pics of the family nostrils to come shortly, too! Keep your eyes peeled. I know you can't wait.
I went through a 'grey phase' in my work last year. Where everything was impasto and done in muted shades of grey. Recently, my paintings have taken a more colorful turn, and I've been mostly interested in the texture of flesh. I suppose I've felt kinder and a bit more realistic about my own body, and it's helped me lighten the mood in a lot of pieces. I think the themes in my paintings are still rather dark, a necessary therapy for a former self, but the way the paint itself is handled now is considerably more lighthearted and satisfying.
Of course, as you can tell from the above pic, I sometimes take myself too seriously...Here I am looking too sexy for the Gatorade bottle in the background. I think it sat on the wood stove for three days before I finally tossed it. Okay, this page is under construction, still...Go on. Get outta here. Oh, and sign my guestbook if you'd be so kind...
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