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.

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.

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.