My Place at the Table
18" x 24"
oil and paper on canvas
2010

What is the role of the American male today? Especially if he eschews the conventional role of donning a suit for a job and chooses, instead, to paint and carve out a "living" as an artist? This is a theme I've been grappling with for many years. This painting is laden with personal symbology, though that was not my intention at first. It all started out as a simple arrangement of objects, but at the end I see a personal narrative in this painting.

The background of this piece is actually collaged pages from an old childrens science book, probably around first or second grade level. On top of that, the still life was painted (from life). Some of the text and images appear through the lighter areas of the tablecloth.

When our daughters were little, I stayed home during the day to raise them since April was a teacher and had the steady paycheck. I was starting my painting business (walls, not art) and was more flexible with my time. April would come home at the end of her long day to take over and I would go out and paint apartments, empty homes, etc. at night and on the weekends. It was tough, but the reward was being able to spend quality time with my girls at such a formative age. I think this painting speaks of that time in our family history when gender roles (in terms of earning income) were switched. I always kept my hand in my artwork no matter how beat down I was from my work. Looking back, I feel I strengthened my male identity by being a stay-at-home dad and artist, that's who I was (and still am). I guess the old pliers in the painting are symbolic of that.

Speaking of dad stuff, I just want to wish Jessie a belated happy birthday. She's in the final few weeks of completing her Masters in Management, Science, and Engineering from Stanford University. Needless to say, the parental units are very proud. (I love you, Peanut!)

This week's studio music:
Social Distortion- Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
Revolutionary Road soundtrack

Today was a ditch work day. I visited Briones Regional Park in the East Bay with my friend and fellow ditch-work-day artist Marty. Marty is a killer great bird artist and we meet regularly to hike and draw from nature. I brought along my watercolor kit and made a few small paintings.

After ruining a couple of watercolor sketches I moved to pencil sketching where I could again relax and get something halfway decent onto paper. I like making thumbnail sketches to help capture the composition of a subject quickly. We're going to meet up again next month and I plan to bring my oils and do a quick plein air study or two.

Irish Vase
oil on cradled hardwood
10" x 10"
2010

I started this painting yesterday, drank lots of coffee, and finished it today. This beautiful vase was a gift from our friends Babby and Peter, they bought it in Ireland a few years back. I love this vase because the glazing patterns remind me of the lunar surface. My goal in this painting was to illuminate the vase like a full moon set against a cold February night.

Travel to Ireland, England, France, and back to Italy, is only a few years away- only three more years of college expenses to pay for- and we're off. That is, unless April wants her new kitchen first... ( I think she will.)

White-faced Whistler
oil on canvas
15" x 30"
2009-10

Here's another rendition of the White-faced Whistler at our zoo. The first one I painted was only 6" x 6", so this one is considerably larger. This is the last unfinished work from 2009 and I'm so happy to be finished with it. It was actually a fun painting even though I stopped work on it for a few months. Sometimes I just need to walk away from a challenging painting and come back to it later. Buying new brushes is also a superb motivating factor to finishing a waiting piece.

I'm probably going to lay off birds for awhile, I've been wanting to get back into some more coastal landscape work, which I may do this week. Also, my architectural model workshop is coming up in a few weeks and I need to prepare for that. I've got over 30 students signed up so I better start sharpening those x-acto blades.

Doggie Diner Head
(From the Portals To Hell series)

10" x 10"
oil on panel
2010

Here's a quick painting done this week of our local unofficial San Francisco landmark, the fully restored Doggie Diner head. DD was a small hamburger franchise which shut down years ago. Every restaurant had one of these giant fiberglass heads out front greeting diners as they walked in to get their greasy food. This head is the last public pooch, the others have ended up in private collections. It was fully restored and painted with a new coat of automobile lacquer- it shines like a sports car. Doggie now resides outside the north entrance to the San Francisco zoo where he continues to scare little children.

Revitalized copper-leaf and enamel bookcase.

This is a recent project where I took an old, inexpensive piece of furniture and transformed it into something unique. I find this kind of project very rewarding because it not only blends art with interior design, but it saves one more thing ending up in a landfill. This bookcase belonged to our daughters and held their books for years. It was pretty worn out.

Before

After

Before I applied the copper-leaf, I added an additional piece of wood and molding to the top to bulk it up a bit. Then I attached short legs to raise the whole case by about 2 inches. The bird and leaf pattern was painted at the end.

When we can extend the life of a piece of furniture for another generation, then we are truly "green" practitioners.

Between Two Worlds
28 x 40
oil on sized panel
2009-2010

Some paintings just take longer than others. I let this one sit for a few months until I felt ready to bring it on home, so to speak. I pushed hard to complete it this week and I'm pleased with the results.

This painting, with the fire on the horizon, is really about two things. First, we've had some devastating fires in California the past few years and I wanted to represent the beautiful, yet terrifying fire-skies in paint. Second, it's about the transitory state we're all in, perched between land and sky, watching and waiting.

The title comes from an exquisite early album by Patrick O'Hearn, whose music has been filling my studio and head for years.