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Royal Flush

This is basically a study of a Royal Riviera Pear, when was first doing workouts in color pencil, striving to get the textures right - actually had the pear from which to work [tho had to work fast, as the pear, once ripe, became VERY juicy]... there is not much of metaphoric nature in this, tho some, as it does show healthy fruit in an uplifting form - a bright spot to see and enjoy...
"Royal Flush"

"Fruitful Morning"

"Fruitful Morning" After a long number of years, since the late 60's as a matter of fact, have decided to return to color pencil... this was based on an old one done of one of my wooden bowls and one of the wooden spoons used in stirring the pots... the cherries came from my imagination, from all those times enjoyed them - and it actually shows, as they're not so marachino in real life as they seem here, but nonetheless was a good project in getting back into using this medium and trusting my spacial sense...... note that, unlike many other still life with fruits, there is nothing decaying involved, but instead the promising of a bright and enjoyable beginning to a day, with the hint of perhaps cereal adorned with those cherries..... there is also the implication of the quality or fruitfulness of the manmade - the bowl and spoon, along with the shelf and paneling...
tho, as said, was based on one of my old wooden bowls, this was, as was with the cherries and the shelf and the rest, essentially done from my head, using my sense of light/shade and wood grains to accomplish this....

"Drawn and Quartered"

"Drawn and Quartered" ........This was originally to be a study based on a saddle seen above the bar refrig at a local Longhorn Restaurant - but, as is most often the case, a mere study would not do, and it took a life of its own in a way, becoming a paen to a past which led to a future...... for one, this does not begin to match the specific saddle seen and first sketched, tho it is indeed a proper saddle..... secondly, it is marked in a science fictional/fantasy fashion, that is it shows markings of having been involved in some fierce battles, with scar markings of claws obvious..... this goes hand-in-hand with it being called a "Dragon Slayer" saddle - which could be taken as a kid's derived dreamwork, or as if the real deal...... thirdly, due to an error in handling, there is an unintended scar in the woodwork at the bottom, running thru the stirrup, necessitating an altering, tho good one, of original intents... the quartering of the background wall came as a means of balancing the work - as well as providing another level to the metaphoric theme/title, indeed, an attempt to altering the usual negative associations to the term while at the same trime keeping it as a siderial issue with the deployment in the past of the saddle usage... finally, the blanket in little ways resembles the originally6 sketched one - that proved too difficult for me to achieve without spending the time there sketching the real one, and so was woven - literally - dot by dot, and achieving a still good used blanket for the work......

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"The Loner"

"The Loner" This stemmed from a photo of a leaf on a shingle roof.... thought it good to try my hand at a trompe l'oeil pen/ink work - in this case just the leaf.. actually succeeded with this, as when view, one thinks is a leaf stuck to the inked paper....

"First Day"

"First Day" This was one of the four small works which initiated me back into doing acrylics after many years of forsaking it.... more of a study piece in seeing how to use the paint, tho was again, a playing on words and view - is it, for instance, a real dragon or a toy? then, too, there was wanting to see how hard to blend the shading of the egg - considering the whole was only about 5 hours, not a poor blending.... a light-hearted work showing a whimsical nature of mine...

"Confluence"

"Confluence" ......The interesting thing of this is that is merely came from the initial seeing of a sunflower sideview, and thought of a plant 'facing the wind and light' so to speak... from that, came the positioning of the leaves to effect a 'blowing', whether wind or light or both, and a fence to brace it..... obviously there arose the scene in mind of the bow on the Titanic movie - hence the mouse.... all, of course, gathering together to make, as the theme/title says - a Confluence.....

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"Critical Mass"

"Critical Mass" One of my favorite artists was a man named William Harnett..... so, with this series which was to display my talents of painting, after a long spell [over a decade] of not painting, I decided to try my hand at doing something in the order of a trompe l'oeil.....hence, as seen in the close-up, my tribute to him... this is another of my odd twistings of objects used before - the mouse, of course, has been in many works now - and the snake was one which was in "Laissez-Faire", one of my two bicentennial paintings [the other being "Cymbal", the flying eagle one].... of course these are not usually thought of as proper in still-life works, because they are still full of life, and still-life usually involve non-moving objects..... however, there is the sense of s 'stilled life' which would work as well - and so it is thus with this work.... here are two objects usually not congenially seen together - and thus is born the theme/title, "Critical Mass", being that thick glass separating them... of course, too, just putting them together as this involves a quirky sense of humor as well, which is fine, as it would seem the mouse could use some every now and then, the way it has been seen in some of my works... there is no big philosophical issue here in this, just a fundamental notion of 'just space' which can apply to anyone seeking security..... the rest is just playing with the paint, seeing how far it could be taken in just a few hours, as well as seeing how in my mind the idea of glass could be worked convencingly...

"Port"

"Port" This is one of the less serious pieces, tho one in which is celebrated a 'joy de vie', and a chance to do several metaphorics on the word 'port'.... there is, for example, the obvious - port means left in nauticaleze - so, the view is from the port side, the turning is to the port direction, and the leaning is ported.... 'port' also is the color of wine, a darkish yet full-bodied , a mixture of purple and blue - of which there is plenty seen..... the temprament, too, is full-bodied, and so it shows here in the waves, and the almost nonchalantness of the pilot, an exhuberance to heading home - seen off in the distance - again, on the port side..... there are more there, but these suffice to get the idea across..... note, too, that the sky, which could have been rendered as dark and forboding, is instead bright and enlightening - yet another which could be considered a 'porting' idea..

"Cackling Good"

" Cackling Good" This is a reworking of my old "AUgmentation" painting, long lost... it is a part of a series for a 'celebration' theming show - here, of course, the celebrating being a 'gold' egg by an unlikely source.... indeed, the question arises - where did the gold come from, the bird, or the can - thus making an amusing line of queries by the viewers.....

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[close-up 1] 

"Life Extentions"

'Life Extensions" This was - and still may be - a prelim to a canvas work in acrylics... the idea was to present an extension of life propagating from an unlikely source.... the original would have a figure in it, a pregnant woman tending the grounds, but the problem of presenting a viable tree over which she could safely walk to this 'island' prevented it taking place... however, there is a variation which may be rendered, taken from the shelf perspective, with the woman tending the outgrowth area instead of the island itself - perhaps theme/titling that "Continuance"... of course there is metaphoric relating in this, even as there is otherwise a 'natural' landscape shown...

"Soulitude" One of the more interesting things about creating one's own world is being able to tailor the landscape to one's personality... what is presented here is at first a large boulder on the shore of a sea, amidst numerous small ones, foreground flanked by a 'lizard' tree... the human element is noted by the platform on the upper left side, implying both human habitation and the means of achieving it..... the sense of aloneness is overwhelming here- but it is in the manner of contemplation, a means of introspectiveness... note there is a looking upward, a skyward glancing, with the impending sense of clarity and expanse... note, too, that there is vegetation on the boulder, that life in general abounds as prelude to the human - that there are possibilities out there, to grow and improve... to flourish - as a result of this contemplativeness... in a sense, it is a paen to the opening of a day - to the future......

"Afterthought", the original 

"Afterthought" The original was lost is why this pen/ink rendering was done... none the less, there were other refinements - emphasises which were done with the pen/ink version which gives the theme/titling better coherance.... this is, of course, the classic - locking the gate after the horses are out... but there is also the bit that a horseshoe in this position is considered, for the superstitious, to be unlucky - another 'afterthought' as it were...... there are, too, a number of metaphoric implications to the 'bolting the barn' which apply to life in general - thus this is, in actuality, a more serious than first seemed piece, even as this whole rendering is done as if itself an afterthought...

"Setting the Stage" This was to be, and may still become, part of a series using the "theater of life" as the take-off point.... after some thought, think will revise this and add a bluebird on the handle, giving it a point of color to otherwise starkness... there is to be another work, of a well, theme/titled "Backdrop", as well as one with several chicks coming around from behind a rock, theme/titled "Entrancing"..... and a final one with a cat slipping into the birdbath, whth the birds flying off into the sky, theme/titled "Exiting"..... lighthearted, whimsical even, these would nonetheless display a joy of life and the positive, even if in minutae....

"After the Haunt"

While this was done initially as a study of doing a straw broom, it quickly became, as so often it does to me, a themed work, this time being a gentle parody of William Harnett's famous paintings [he did two versions] "After the Hunt" and, since was doing a broom, decided to double play on the idea of witches - both the whisking and the post-Hallow'een - by theme/titling it as such... as doing old brick comes easy for me [these are of course all from my head], figured the broom would best be displayed as if hung from nail in brick wall, perhaps a side part of the chimney ... there is an intention of doing a full sized broom version, complete with hat hanging on another nail, with a bat hanging from that, a cloak also hanging, and perhaps a black cat hanging on that, reaching for the bat - all, of course, continuing the parody yet at the same time, being as detailed and b/w photographic as can be, a sincere appreciated tribute to Harnett...

Reared Window This was an outgrowth of a photo showing a tree managing to grow in a narrow canyon way, where only the part above the walls has the leafry... wanting to make it more interesting, took the idea and made it as part of the 'backyard' of a home... wanting further to see it better, and to gain a sense of depth to the work, turned the left wall into a column whereas light could be seen on both close and back, and allowing for a distance viewing... underscoring this is putting the whole in the frame of a window, with a veggie on the sill [originally to be as part of vines growing on far right, but omitted for not being necessary to the work..... this, too, is a case of 'saving' a work - note the varigation of the wall, made thus by ink drips on the top right, mandating creative ways to saving the rendering, by having similar ones over the wall..... of course, the theme/title plays on multiple layers, from take-off of the Hitchcock movie to something being raised [as in growing something] as well as the act of rising.... subconsciously, it turns out there is also an eroticness to the work, using the rocks and tree as symbols for genital views [or so have been told by others]... at present, is the largest colored ink work done.....

Familial One of the possible usefulness of fantasy is as allegory - in this case, as a gift to a friend, a portrait, actually, of her as she innerly visualizes herself... there are, of couse, several layers to this, as familial could refer to either of them, as well as other things such as dragon color [which makes for differences], the three columns, and so forth - all involved with symbolisms not so readily apparent to contemporaries.... note that, in spite of the usual viewing of the beast, this is very much a benevolent presentation, one with an erotic inclination....

'Steps' One of the ways of showing humanness in works is to involve some aspect of directiveness to an existing arena - in this case, the rocky waterfall conclave. From what appears as a nature scene, one immediately notes furtherances to it, namely not just the literal steps on the right side leading to the top, but an extention above that implying habitation of humanity. Two responses can immediately be taken from this - pro-human or anti-human, depending on one's worldview. The pro sees this as an affirmation of being human, that what exists, simply exists, and is for to be made of use of - in this case not only as an aesthetic arena for one to come and do contemplation amidst the falling waters, but as an adjacent to passageway to further heights, both literally as well as figuratively. The con, of course, see this as affront to the socalled pristineness of nature, a nature in which humanity is not seen as an integral part, but as an enterloper - in which, then, the theme/title is directional to the reverse of the other's view. As such, this makes the work a litmus of one's viewing of self and one's relationship to not just the world, but to others of one's kind as well.