Pictures from Maine

After a few months without making any new pictures, I had the chance to sit down and make a few during a vacation in Surry, Maine. These pictures are gouache on paper. The backgrounds were all made using seawater. After scratching the paper with beach sand to give it extra tooth, I would float the paper in the bay while I added the gouache backgrounds.

Marakanda, 2008
Gouache on paper
17" x 30"

Marakanda, 2008
Gouache on paper
22 1/4" x 30"

Marakanda, 2008
Gouache on paper
22 1/4" x 30"

Marakanda, 2008
Gouache on paper
22 1/4" x 30"

Marakanda, 2008
Gouache on paper
12" x 30"

A New Still Life

A New Still Life, 2008
Oil on canvas
18" x 24"

During the months of February and March, I've created a new series of pictures based on a collection of items that I experimented with in past pictures. I have a large red table in my studio and on top of that I place the images of the cane (which is a stand in for myself) and the botanical (Karen). What's new in this series is the introduction of a light source. Only after I made about 10 versions did I realize that the light is a symbol of the upcoming birth of my first child (Mara). I really find it funny that sometimes I only see what I'm doing after I've done it.

I made so many variations of this picture that I have not had time to properly title them and only came up with "A New Still Life" during the writing of this post. I fully expect to rename them in the future.

Below are 3 additional examples from this series.



A New Still Life (2), 2008
Oil on canvas
18" x 24"


A New Still Life (3), 2008
Oil on canvas
18" x 24"


A New Still Life (4) - in progress, 2008
Oil on canvas
18" x 24"

#17 from 100 pictures book - Untitled

Untitled, 2001
Oil on wood
48" x 24

This is an unusual piece for me in that there were no sketches and no similar pictures that came after it. So unusual that I never gave it a proper title. This picture was painted in the beginning part of the year because after 9/11, I started my Imaginary Botanicals series and abandoned all other works.

The central figure comes from an old rubber stamp that I own. It is a doctor's stamp that they used before they had copy machines. The doctor would use this stamp to help diagram a patients symptoms. What I really enjoy about it is that the left half shows the front of the image and the right half the back. I thought it was great that it implied that the figure has two sides even though it is a simple line drawing. I also liked it because I thought it also could imply that the figure was spinning. I believe that is what made me add the other figures. Those are from Matisse's famous Dance, 1910. The combination of the two just seemed to fit.

#58 from 100 pictures book - The Ghost and the Spirit

The Ghost and the Spirit, 2005
Oil on canvas
18" x 24"

This picture was made shortly after my good friend Sam Maitin passed away and cannot help but be tied to his memory. I had been his studio assistant for many years and looked at him as a teacher and a friend.

In the corner of my house there is a fireplace with a wide mantle. On that mantle sits a white plaster bird made years ago by a friend of mine. Next to the fireplace hangs a picture and below that, a potted plant. I removed the picture and left only an empty frame and took the fire out of the fireplace and gave it to the plant. The plant also contains the form of one of my Imaginary Botanicals figures.

Something about this simple arrangement caught my eye as I as I was thinking about the similarities and differences in the words ghost and spirit. I liked how the meanings could shift when used to describe a friend rather than just an unknown person. The spirit in particular seemed to shift most upon realizing that it can contain both the energy the person had while alive and their accumulated knowledge.