Personal Reflections on my Early Watercolors
My commitment to working as an artist is rooted in a desire to not only understand the world around me but to understand myself. My early years, spent in a variety of spiritual pursuits, instilled in me a meditative awareness of the deeper meaning found below the surface of life. In the still-life genre I found an artistic practice which allowed me to express this understanding.
My early watercolors were sensual in nature and simple in presentation. My love for the magnificent light of California suffused this early work with a startling brilliance. My love of flowers and an abiding connection to the primal nature of color combined to create large scale, passionately lyrical work. This work was created during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic here in San Francisco, when my continued existence was in doubt. By celebrating this sensual and fragile beauty, I was also acknowledging its impermanence.
I came to see the still-life as a shrine that honored the tangible world. I found it necessary to explore the slippery divide between perception and illusion, which led to the creation of almost magical realist work where space, time and dimension are purely a product of the imagination. I started to use compositional devices such as changing the viewpoint to flatten the surface, altering the depth of field, removing perspective and using pattern to create abstraction. This involved an intoxicating combination of both the organic and the geometric, and revealed compositions of surprising complexity and depth.
As I look back at my work, I see a restless need to explore both my outer and inner worlds and I continue to create paintings that pay tribute to the vivid and mysterious reality that surrounds us.
Watercolor on paper60 x 40 inches2013Catalog ID: 201311Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 20 inches2014Catalog ID: 201412Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper44 x 44 inches2014Catalog ID: 201414Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper60 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200414Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 26 inches2014Catalog ID: 201410Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper49 x 37 Framed inches2003Catalog ID: 200318Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 20 inches2014Catalog ID: 201408Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 26 inches2014Catalog ID: 201406Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 26 inches2014Catalog ID: 201407Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper44 x 35 inches2013Catalog ID: 201316Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper44 x 35 inches2014Catalog ID: 201411Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 25 inches2013Catalog ID: 201315Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper19.75 x 19.75 inches2012Catalog ID: 201223Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 26 inches2014Catalog ID: 201413Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 26 inches2014Catalog ID: 201405Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper30 x 22 inches2003Catalog ID: 200316Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41 x 29 inches2003Catalog ID: 200323Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 framed inches2006Catalog ID: 200657Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200702Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2006Catalog ID: 200658Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200734Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper18 x 18 inches2008Catalog ID: 200845Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200731Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2014Catalog ID: 201409Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2008Catalog ID: 200847Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2008Catalog ID: 200842Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper19 x 19 inches2008Catalog ID: 200844Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5X29.5 inches2012Catalog ID: 201223Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper14.5 x 10.5 inches2008Catalog ID: 200849Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper26 x 26 inches2014Catalog ID: 201415Download ⇩
Watercolor on pper44x35 inches2013Catalog ID: 201341Download ⇩
Watercolor on pper25x40 inches2013Catalog ID: 201338Download ⇩
This is the description22x22 inches2009Catalog ID: 200924Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5x41 inches1991Catalog ID: 199112Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x60 inches1992Catalog ID: 199227aDownload ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x60 inches1992Catalog ID: 199227bDownload ⇩
Watercolor on paper45x96 inches1992Catalog ID: 199240Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper60x40 inches1993Catalog ID: 199305Download ⇩
Watercolor on pper41x29.5 inches1993Catalog ID: 199326Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x29.5 inches1993Catalog ID: 199344Download ⇩
After not painting in watercolor for 9 years, I have joyfully returned to this challenging medium to create these vibrant abstractions inspired by that uniquely American music-Jazz. The dazzling colors and bold shapes are visual homages to Coltrane and Davis, Ellington and Armstrong, Mingus and Monk, and most surprisingly to the beautifully lyrical Jazz from Ethiopia. I have tried to create work in the true spirit of spontaneity that is the essence of jazz, utilizing all my compositional skills to create shapes and colors that truly embody this powerfully original music.
Recent inspiration from microbiology and cellular structures are pushing my creativity into even juicier compositions.
Along side the watercolors are more spontaneous pastel drawings.
Watercolor on paper40x40 inches2021Catalog ID: 202116Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper30x22 inches2021Catalog ID: 202115Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper20211244x44 inches2021Catalog ID: 202112Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40x60 inches2021Catalog ID: 202110Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x29.5 inches2021Catalog ID: 202108Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x29.5 inches2021Catalog ID: 202107Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper44x44 inches2021Catalog ID: 202106Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x29.5 inches2021Catalog ID: 202105Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5x41 inches2021Catalog ID: 202103Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper41x29.5 inches2021Catalog ID: 202102Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5x41 inches2021Catalog ID: 202104Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5x41 inches2021Catalog ID: 202109Download ⇩
Pastel on paper40x25 inches2021Catalog ID: 202111Download ⇩
Pastel on paper25x40 inches2021Catalog ID: 202113Download ⇩
Pastel on Rives BFK30x22 inches2021Catalog ID: 202114Download ⇩
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These paintings are visual keys that explore the mystery of beauty. Using ritualistic creative processes that allow me to connect with my inner unconscious reality, I explore some of the paradoxical and magical aspects of life. An energetic attraction connects objects that have personal meaning for me, such as stones collected from beaches around the world, dead leaves found while out walking, thorns from the black Locust tree, animal and human skulls, and creates compositions that contain an intense and focused devotional energy that honors the disturbing balance of opposites that is the inner core of beauty.
It is disturbing because it exposes the paradoxical honesty that is the world. Beauty has to be both yin and yang, both light and dark, both life and death, both stability and motion, both emptiness and fullness, both black and white. It represents the unknown and often the unknowable, and is contained in the wordless power of these mysterious images.
Watercolor on paper60 x 60 diptych inches2005Catalog ID: 200562Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2005Catalog ID: 200502Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper22 x 22 inches2007Catalog ID: 200729Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200411Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200427Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200537Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200564Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200433Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2003Catalog ID: 200336Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200422Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200417Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper22 x 22 inches2005Catalog ID: 200535Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200501Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2006Catalog ID: 200649Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2005Catalog ID: 200544Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper18 x 18 inches2006Catalog ID: 200653Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2007Catalog ID: 200764Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2006Catalog ID: 200656Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2006Catalog ID: 200651Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200727Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200431Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200538Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200762Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200425Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200565Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200542Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper60 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200415Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200541Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200419Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2006Catalog ID: 200650Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2007Catalog ID: 200733Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200504Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2005Catalog ID: 200547Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200418Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200728Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2004Catalog ID: 200432Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2007Catalog ID: 200766Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200426Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper40 x 40 inches2004Catalog ID: 200423Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper18 x 18 inches2005Catalog ID: 200543Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2008Catalog ID: 200840Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2007Catalog ID: 200726Download ⇩
Watercolor on paper29.5 x 29.5 inches2005Catalog ID: 200536Download ⇩
A Meditation On Being Human
Drinking From The River Of Silence