Coco Drink Drink Coco

This painting teeters on the edge of being a add for Coco's a ubiquitous tea drink chain in Shanghai and beyond.  the have a passion fruit, green tea drink I like.  The slogan for Coco's 都可茶饮， seems strangely awkward in Chinese adding to it's value as poetry.  It roughly literally translates as:  All can tea drink.

blending east and west

Crane, Dragonfly and Bird, ink and watercolor on paper.  In my tireless quest to adapt Chinese painting techniques and materials to more modern content, I find myself recombining and juxtaposing certain elements with alarming regularity.  My Chinese calligraphy has probably benefitted more than other elements of my painting from being in China this last year.  Hopefully my brushwork also gets better over time.  It should all peak when I am on my deathbed.  This painting has the Chinese phrase that can roughly be translated, `A success measures their own strength and then acts'.  The loose brush strokes transport this painting from just a post-modern ironic narrative to something a touch more visceral.

November show

I also have quite a few paintings up in November at the the Hillsboro Arts center.

November show

I also have quite a few paintings up in November at the the Hillsboro Arts center.

Owl in a tree (with a detail of the owl)

This is one of the large painting I have been working on. It measures about 4'x7'. It hangs as a scroll. I'm trying to figure out how to mount large scrolls by myself. It is labor intensive and I definitely haven't perfected it yet. This one has a respectable amount of negative space for the viewer to fill with whatever it is they look to fill empty spaces with.

Hello Kitty, Paintings with Words

I've been putting a lot of words into my paintings lately. Hello Kitty is one example. I think doing a lot of paintings with Chinese calligraphy in them has inspired me to use English....especially since most people who see the paintings don't read Chinese.

Pile of Practice Paper in Pittock Mansion

July 17th to Nov. 14th Uncertain Times show at Pittock Mansion. See a pile of newspaper. Come back each week to watch it turn yellow.

The Demise of the Newspaper

I'm excited about the upcoming show at Pittock Mansion this summer through the fall. It is called Uncertain Times and is about the demise of the newspaper industry. I will have an installation in the show. It will be a large (the larger the better) pile of newspaper I have used to practice Chinese calligraphy on. The two paintings above will also be in the show.

Forest Diptych with Lady and Sandy

The idea behind this forest scene was to take advantage of ink and washes by contrastign the dark trees in front with the lighter trees in back. I am also contrasting the relatively fine brushwork done on Lady and Sandy (You can decide which is Lady and which is Sandy) with the brisk loose brushwork of the trees. The Calligraphy couplet roughly translates, `I know my character makes it hard for me to conform. I like that I belong to no-one.' I used the li style of calligraphy.

Rain, Fire, Dog, Owl

This 10"x 14" painting has some of my familiar elements. The rain is represented by ink that has dripped and flowed. There is a fire in the background and an owl picking up a dog. Is the owl trying to save the dog or is he going to take the dog and eat it? Do you care? That's the dramatic tension.

Bird Watchers (1 and 2)

Both of these paintings (12"x36", ink and watercolor on paper) continue with my semi-obsession with people on cell phones. In both these painting a woman is proudly displaying a cell phone picture she took of a bird in the the tree. Something that I have tried to do in these paintings and on other occasions, is paint the cell phone signal....in case you are wondering what those curved blue lines are.

Watering His Iris

This small painting(5"x8") , Watering His Iris, is one of many paintings I've been working on where someone is on their cell phone. I'm sure that some day in the not too distant future I will have a show where every painting has a cellular phone in it.

Two Young Owls

Here is a small painting (6"x9") built around the image of two owls in a hollow part of a tree. The tree is painted with loose, broad brush-strokes. Everything else in the painting is more finely executed. The dog seems to sense there is something in the tree. Is this cute scene about to erupt into a bloodbath as the domestic animal tries to attack the young owls? Or will they all get along and go off together to the factory (that's what's in the background) to tour the assembly line from a glassed in observation deck?

Rabbit in the Snow

For this painting, I was trying to adapt the traditional Chinese ink painting technique of painting a snowy scene. Snow is the absence of ink or color in traditional Chinese landscape painting. It was fun to suggest a landscape with just a dozen or so quick brushstrokes.

Rabbit in the

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.