The New Pooh, 1996
Acrylic, Photocopies, Drafting Mylar, Bondo, Charcoal, Ink
This started as a review in the newpaper of a local play based on Winnie the Pooh. The article was less than flattering, but did give it some sublime credit. I found the images fascinating, much like the sight of the Easter bunny on the side of the road or Santa Claus visiting children at an event via a helicopter. The transition from cartoon to live action, imagination to reality sometimes leaves one underwhelmed. In a pop culture world the prospect of becoming something other than human is exciting until a certain sadness permeates the thought when we realise that we are stuck in this mortal coil and that we can never become anything other than human.
Fire Starter, 2001
Acrylic, Photocopies, Drafting Mylar, Copper Leaf and things you would find under the sink
My first apartment in San Francisco was in a residence hotel on Van Ness and Bush. The building across the way had four stories of televisions playing Toy Story 24 -7. One night while watching Toy Story I saw Bill Clinton in his limousine and motorcade drive-by. I caught a glimpse of him because he had the light on and was reading. At that time I had just moved to SF, money was extremely tight and I was experiencing a whole new environment. I had read an article in the newspaper about a woman who had just bought a $14 million condo and it had burned down. This is a picture of her and her dog. The art I produce is about the recycling of images, running images through processes much like how the built environment past, president and future create its own residual history, whether real, or within our minds - they are ghosts. The red and blue represent the emergency vehicle lights. The black lines represent the streetscape. The night of the fire is no longer with us only the texture in the minds of those who remember, those who imagine and those who care.
Moscow, 2019
Acrylic, rice paper prints on canvas
Charles Minard made a famous infographic of Napoleon’s campaign on Russia. The thickness of the line starting in Poland indicated the troop strength and as the line followed a path across the continent to Moscow the line got thinner and thinner. After the battle of Moscow only a thin line traced his return. When I was invited to give a design talk at the University of Idaho - Moscow, I decided to use this infographic as a introduction to how design starts with data. By scanning the two dimensional image into the computer, tracing it with vector lines and then extruding it in 3-D software are you able to create space. This space could house an amphitheater, a park, a house - whatever the original impetus for the design was. In this case my path to Moscow, Idaho. My infatuation with the image and the idea continued so I used the graphic for a logo, letterhead, all kinds of printed collateral with regards to my business. Eventually I wanted to culminate the process in a painting. I used the image originally generated in Moscow and imbued it will all my feelings of place and time and the path I had taken up until the moment of creation. The shade, shadow and color were replaced with photographic images I had taken of the natural landscape in my surrounding area. Clouds and vapor trails in the sky, jellyfish the sea, Monterey Pines from the bluffs. All work to create dynamic representation of my path.