This ones been a "slow-roller", but for some reason I've found it really therapeutic to get geeky about minute details such as skin tones and shades and the way the water reflects off the sand.....

Ya acabé

Finished! Here are some details.....

ART LIQUIDATION! (Im having a going out of business sell of all my paintings)

So...........

Ive been thinking alot lately about what to do with all the paintings I have of mine. Since I graduated in 2000, Ive kept most of what Ive painted, only selling smaller paintings here and there.

As a result, I've acquired a small storage space worth of my own work (it seems Im my biggest collector as well), and Im running out of space to store it.....In fact, all the work has taken up an entire wall in the studio and there is still work hanging everywhere on both floors of the annex building (the building where the studio is located).

It's gotten so overcrowded that its beginning to affect my productivity--how can one keep producing more paintings while a decades worth are sitting on the walls and floor all around you?--its almost ominous at times.

So here's a proposed remedy that Nicole and I have come up with: we decided to have an "art liquidation" sale at the annex building this June (Saturday, June 5th to be exact, so mark it on your calendars!). I think we might run with the furniture liquidation/garage sell theme and make the whole event real ciche'and garage sellesque....

The MAIN point is that I would like all my paintings to find happy homes and someone who'd love them....therefore Im selling everything for 30$. Thats right, everything must go and its ALL marked down to 30 bucks--every piece, any size! (phew, this liquidation salesman stuff is pretty catchy).

So if you have always liked a piece but felt you never had the room....blow up a wall in your home and make room, because you cant beat 30 bucks. THIS IS A ONE DAY ONLY EVENT, so mark it on your calendars.

To promote the event, I will post pictures of the paintings and a little back drop story to them for the next month

Heres the first (and admittedly, this is one of my most favorite paintings)......

Its gone by many titles, but the one Ive stuck to recently is "LIONS' TOOTH":

This was one of the first of a series of figure paintings I did for my senior thesis. The paintings involved clothed figures sitting or standing in environments with color panels placed strategically around them. My sister posed for this one, and since I always love a good story, I included pieces of hers in it. The composition and subject matter are largely based off of Edvard Munchs' PUBERTY painting. It stands at 7 and 1/2 feet tall by 4 feet wide....

Portland Open Studios and Frankenstein

Well, this weekend is the beginning of Portland Open Studios, an artist "walk" in which Portland folk gather and commute to various areas of the city to peer in on artists at work in their studios. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUTTjx7MCE8 for more info.) I helped my brother in law set his studio up for it last year and it looked like so much fun, I had to jump on board this year.

To prepare the studio, I hung all of my older paintings down the preceding hallway and stairwell.....most of them are from ten years ago (right after I graduated). Taking them out of storage was a nostalgic process at minimum. Thought I'd post them up with a few notes.


"lion's tooth" my sister modeled in our old Ohio farmhouse for this one. Its composition is influenced by an Edvard Munch painting.




"Maternal". To this day my mother will not let me forget that I made her model in the middle of the night in her bathrobe and then proceeded to paint her face as though she were suffering from leprosy. She's still reluctant to pose for me. Trust ma, trust.




"The woodcutter who kicked against the womb". My father. Inspired by an attempt he made to fell a tree in our backwoods, which resulted in him driving himself to the ER and receiving 11 stitches on the back of his leg.



"Vehiculum". My father again. He had a deep love and hate for working on our vehicles. It seemed to give him purpose and meaning, likewise sending him into the fowlest fogs of curses and scowls. It was to this strange love affair that I found myself spectating from above and handing down specific tools like a nurse before some mad frankensteinian surgeon.


"Everything in its right place." I'll never forget scratching away at this one long into those cold Ohio fall nights. I was alone, in the farm house with only a kerosene heater, some oatmeal, and Radiohead's newly released KID A album. Hmmmm, breathe deep of that thick turpentine smellin nostalgia.