[close-up 2] 

[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.

'Generationals' 

This is the only work entirely done in stipple, mostly for the ability of being able to render the leather look of the books and the woodgrain of the shelf... it is, as most all of my works, a multiple statement of ideas, from the obvious of progression from child blocks to educated books to creativity in structuring a bonsai, to the also obvious of vegetation to constructive use to cycling back to controled working of vegetation... there is, too, a strong sense of purposefulness, where little is left to whim and much to goal directiveness...

"FaceOff" 

What started out as an odd idea, "Stoned Face", has turned into a series, with "SumKissed", and now "FaceOff", and the possibility of a few more yet to come... these are, as is obvious, erotic works, celebrating the lusciousness of being a sexual being, using a stone face as a counterpointing to achieving humor among it, without a downputting of the sexuality... more sense of life than others, yet each as said celebrates aspects of being human, thru the sexuality as expressed by the female figure...

'SumKissed' 

Breakthrough Like many of this type, the oasis in midst of nothingness, this has a refreshing look to it-- and is different in that there is no specific life shown, just the water, and the implication of human life by the way of the step stones on the pool, which not only indicate humanity, but a flourishing one, with the hint of much more offstage..

'The Yearning Tree' 

'Wish Area' Using a take-off on the wisteria, utilized the idea of what it was which was and/or still wished for as measures of importance to me..... using the floral as the means of having the past in shade, established the lost desires from my youth, when played Tarzan for three years at a summer camp - hence the loincloth around the knife handle - a life loved but in the past, never to be able to be again.... the manuscript is in the light - something being done and wished to be eventually...... the recorder is half in, half out in the shade - something of playing music still is wanted, and is yet a possibility..... the ring is another like that - memories of in the past, yet a willingness to have that again, a marriage.... the lotto ticket - the ultimate in wishfulness, and the least likely to come to being, as the bending of it into deep shadow...... the issue of art - well, the work itself is real, so there is no need of wishing, as it is an actual....... there was only one other item which should have been added - a newspaper clipping of the shuttle going up.......

'after jim davies