Paintings for the Lewis & Clark Multicultural Symposium

Urban Garden (above) is one of the paintings that will be featured at the Lewis and Clark college Art Exhibit Nov. 11-13. The art Exhibit is part of the Ray Warren Multicultural Symposium. If you look closely at the garden, there is a rabbit, two fighting dogs, a goose, and some loving pidgeons mixed in with the humans and vegetation.

This Rabbit Must Be Dead?

I was biking on the Springwater Trail the other day and saw this pudgy white rabbit hopping around the weeds near this industrial/warehouse area. I couldn't help but think that it's days were numbered so I sketched it.

Family Beach Run

Launchpad Gallery is having a group show with the theme of `Family' in October. It should be as spirited, inclusive, and fun as all there open call group shows are. Launchpad is one of the places that makes the Portland art scene unique and welcoming. The above painting is my most recent family themed painting. It as a family running on the beach with a wave about to caress them and stuff happening in the background. About a year I go I did a similar painting, but with birds:

Entries in Erostfest NW

Erosfest (erosfestnw.com) is coming up with an art exhibit in the Pearl. The exhibit will be at Forkfly (forkfly.com) Friday August 7 through Sunday August 9.

We will be able to see why kind of eroticism has been soaking in the rain and baking in the heat.

Dante's Love Orbs

This is a second attempt to paint a self-portrait in the style of a Tibetan Thanka painting. The opposing fish help shed some light on the theme of the painting. The first fish is saying, "Give Dante a fish and it's a meal." The second fish is saying, "Teach Dante to fish and he feeds his ego." This painting points out some of Dante's character flaws while at the same time showing some of his more endearing qualities.

Dante Meditating in a Cave

This is another possible painting for my September PCC show. It is modeled on traditional Chinese ink paintings of meditating monks. In reality, I have never been good at a sustained meditation practice. I should perhaps go to a cave for a length of time and try.

Dante in a Thanka Painting

This just completed 24"x36" ink and watercolor painting is loosely based on the tradition of Tibetan Thanka painting. Dante , the main subject of the painting, is treated like a minor buddhist god. With a paintbrush in one hand and a TV remote in the other, he weilds his power. The two fish, hooked to Dante's nipples by orange fishing line are thinking profound thoughts. The one on the left is thinking `Give Dante an Fish and that's a meal'. The one on the right is thinking `Teach Dante How to Fish and he feeds his ego.'

There are a few more examples of Dante's Thanka-esque paintings on his website.

Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form

This is one of the key concepts of Zen Buddhism. Deceptively simple. Deceptively meaningless. Form and emptiness are the same thing. It is one of those freeing existential concepts, particularly apropos to painting where you use lines and color and empty space to give the illusion of something. I built these two paintings around my walking script calligraphy renditions of the characters form and emptiness.

This is a hard painting to get a good picture of. You really need to see it in person to take in its majesty. It is a 14' tall, 4' wide hanging scroll. I showed it at Tyson Space Gallery a while back. It was inspired by hikes in the Pacific Northwest and, of course, Chinese landscape paintings. In September I have a show in the North Gallery at PCC Sylvania. The show will explore Chinese calligraphy, philosophy, and various painting genres. I might hang this painting, if it fits. I will try to make it very real. More real than my fingers on this computer keyboard.

Urban Garden

A painting to celebrate our brave new world.

Ben, Pink and the Sentimental Sturgeon

I finished this yesterday afternoon after attending a Second Friday opening at Launchpad gallery Friday night. Ben Pink, Launchpad's owner, put together a great evening, so I decided to dedicate this 16"x20" ink and watercolor on paper painting to him. I have been working on illustrations for the Dao De Jing, so I decided to put in one quote from Laozi's text in this painting. The quote is translated and explained at http://daodejingillustrated.blogspot.com/ . I was trying very hard to make every line I comitted to paper have some grace and power. As dependent as my paintings are on narrative content, it is really the brushstroke, in abstraction, that holds potential. For me, the line is the closest thing you will get to the human touch from a painting. Each brushstroke is me trying to express something that is hopefully worth expressing.