Springtime

For this artwork , I incorporated colors inspired by nature, foilage and direct sunlight. Figures emerged and developed from the backround. For this creative process I was very influenced by the decorative color of Matisse, the "push/pull"abstractions of Hans Hoffman and the high contrast dynamics of Op Art.

Goddess of Blessings

This one started out as an agonizingly overworked abstract experiment. Eventually, it mutated into two figures. The women's silhouette on the right is pouring water into the man's mouth to the left. This activity was inspired from watching a Turkish folk dance in which the women dancers simulate pouring water on the men working in the fields. it was nice to take a break from what is sometimes "blood and guts"imagery and depict something pleasant. This work was inspired by folk and outsider art and most definitely by the stick figure art of German artist A.R. Penck.

Nirvana

This painting started out as an old abstract painting that I used as an underpainting and added forms that I saw within abstract patterns. Because the painting ended up with 3 faces, I named it after the 3 man band "Nirvana". It's meant as a caricature and as an homage to their misanthropic, grungy,"warts and all" forms of expression.

Angels in the Elements

This painting started out as a very sloppy abstraction that gradually developed figurative elements such as faces inside a serpentine form. These creatures inhabit a primordial, astral world co-habitated by elves, faeries, demons and elementals. After viewing this work several times It reminded me of numerous reincarnated souls sharing the body of a small worm like animal.

Cosmic Portrait

This painting developed in a very spontaneous, orgnanic way. I combined drippy abstract expressionism with shimmery op art colors to create a fun, psychedelic effect. It's called a portrait because it started out as a face but it quickly mutated into several crawling creatures that resemble duck bill dinosaurs, frogs, body parts, and ghost-like faces. This picture shows the complicated psychological forces lurking beneath the human animal.

Lunar Tick

I finished this piece in 2007. I showed it at Hallwalls Art Museum members show and at the Cosmopolitan Gallery holiday show in Buffalo, N.Y. Like much of my work, this one fits into the "obnoxious cartoon" end of the spectrum. What makes the piece unique is the high contrast figure/ground shift that I achieved by using tried and true painting techniques of blending and color mixing. I applied this illusionistic method to the insectoid alien creature. I left the backround completely raw and abstract for a dramatic "push pull" punchy effect.

Note to Self 4-Double Feature

This is a mixed media work from a short series that I exhibited at the Cosmopolitan Gallery in Buffalo, NY. I composed this picture using words and pictures from newspapers, magazines, and comics. Then, with paint, I brought out the forms with paint that emerged from the shapes within the collage material. Like most of my work, the subject matter flowed freely from my imagination. It's a process similar to seeing faces and forms in the clouds or psychololgical inkblot tests. This is the aspect of my Art that relates to surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. For this picture, I assigned concious meaning to the imagery only after it was finished. Some of my paintings are dogmatic with a definite statement of story while others are completely experimental, vague and abstract. This one is somewhere in the middle. It relates to communication, competition and consumption. Mind vs body, East vs West.

I used a long plank of wood for this piece and painted on each side of it. This image shows both painted sides of the artwork.