This painting is a further exploration into my new found expression.

Unemployed Man

This is a self-portrait, painted quickly and intensely. I don't know if this painting is finished yet, but I feel that it is.

I want to utilize the main attributes of paint so that I may create images that have a sense of mortality and life, no longer a sense of inert permanence. Motion is becoming very important to me in my paintings.

Portrait of a nude Woman

This painting was an extraordinary painting from the beginning. I felt an immense connection to the painting up to the point that I destroyed it, I lost control of the painting and tried to push it further. This photo was taking at the apex of the painting and then the downfall caused me to scrape the image out and begin a new painting on top of it, this image is all that exist. It was emotionally difficult and draining. The painting that was painted over it is "Unemployed Man".

Portrait of a Woman

It has been awhile since I have posted any images, but now i feel that I have something to share. I have changed my approached to painting, striving to create images with movement and a sense of mortality.

Nicole no.1

I am beginning a transitional phase in my paintings. I am finally figuring out how I want to paint.

Brutal honesty and inherit sense of beauty.

Nicole

I have been painting trying to find a way to release the inner dialog and create paintings that maintain a certain amount of beauty, but place the viewer uncomfortably in ambiguity. I have been studying a wide variety of painters lately from Russian Impressionist too, most notably, the School of British Figurative Painters of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Frank Auerbach. I am more connected with my work than I have been in a while.

Landscape: translating pastel to paint

"Backyard Tree" Pastel

This tree is the subject for my next painting, it will most likely be a small painting which could possibly develop into a larger painting.

Pastel Drawing of Nicole

This is a pastel drawing I did this evening of Nicole. I decided to start utilizing pastels more often in my drawings, in hopes that by resolving color on the scene I will be able to better translate my drawings into paintings.

"Self-Portrait on back porch"

"Self-Portrait on back porch" is a 22" X 30" canvas given to me by Nicole, like most of my paintings of recent, there are images beneath them, although this time an image not of mine. I have been painting desperately as of lately trying to encapsulate a sense of life; with images that not only reference what is seen in reality but what is felt through my understanding of reality. The portrait is bleeding from the inside out. The eyes are ghostly and almost non-existent. The figure is contemplative and feels every flick of color. He inhabits a place not too far outside his safe-haven, in real time and in real space, both figure and space exist in reality.

It is important in my opinion to understand reality and it is equally important to understand the human spirit or soul. To dedicate oneself to the act of creating is to dedicate oneself to an act of transcendence. I am invigorated by great art and search for it on a daily bases, mostly in the contemporary age in which we preside I am confounded by what is considered art. But that is why I choose to continue painting and not give into my confoundedness, letting it concern me more than that of what I see and feel, for those are the things in which I must gage my existence. They are the only things that I can perceive, justification of the conceptual is all in the mind.

Study of Nicole

I recently returned from Indiana, and after visiting my good friend Ross Wagner I became inspired to put my woodcuts on hold and begin painting. Ross is an amazing painter whom I share similar philosophies with on the creative process.

Shitake Mushroom studies

"Pass the Plate, When the Birds Come Home"

I have taken a break from the series-The Things we do... to work on a different set of prints. "Pass the Plate, When the Birds Come Home" deals with the idea of ritual and cycle. Ritual, being the passing of the plate, whether it is at a dinner table or in church there is a ritual of asking for something that is needed or sought to be needed. Cycle, being when the ritual takes place, where, when, and how. What circumstances make it appropriate for the ritual to take place, and how balance becomes disrupted when the ritual is disturb.

These set of prints utilize three different woodblocks. The first is the figure, or "tronie"(head study coined from Rembrandt) which is dense with black symbolizing containment or solitude, the second is the hat printed from a topographical piece of wood showing the rings in which the tree grew. And the last being a block containing birds soaring above it all, because that is what they do, they see everything.

The print is a reference to the individual struggling to comprehend beyond what we know.

"Seen The Demons" (color print); The things we do...

This is the color print for "Seen The Demons", there are a total of seven colors on this block. The print's demeanor is consistent to that of my previous color print "The Ride". However this print appears to be later in the night as the sky becomes much darker and the figures much grayer.

I put a lot of energy in developing my palette. I think about what it is I am trying to convey and then manipulate the hues till I feel they are appropriate. I am constantly juxtaposing different hues next to one another on my palette to see the relationship that the hues have to one another. I find that primarily being a painter it is easier for me to mix a more convincing palette.

The palette for the series The things we do... is primarily a gray palette. I am not trying to convey a sense a warmth. I want the viewer to approach the prints with caution.

"The Dream Hat"; The things we do...

"The Dream Hat" is the third print in the series of The things we do... The Dream Hat contains the dreams that we choose to bring into reality. The hat begins when we are a child and continues to grow throughout life, except for those who's Dream Hat manifest itself into a perpetual spiral of doubt, misery, and self-induced pain. That is where the dunce comes into being. Lack of initiative and addiction of immediate satisfaction, a darker reality to many. The adornment of the Dunce Hat in many cases is the choice of the wearer.

"The Ride" (color print); The things we do...

This is the finished color woodblock print, there are six different hues not including the black of the key block and the white of the paper. It is a relatively small print, (9.25" x 13.5") therefore the process of rolling multiple color inks onto the block was a labor intensive one. I soaked my paper, similar to etching, so that less ink is needed to adhere color to the page. This simple added procedure allows me to be more economical with my inks. The edition is also relatively small, since I am spooning all of my prints nowadays I will most likely be making editions around six to ten prints, "The Ride" contains six color prints.

"The Ride"; The things we do...

"The Ride" second in the series of The things we do... is the struggle or journey we create for ourselves. "The Ride" can be playful, it can create virtues for one and cause pain for another. It reveals truth through introspection and elevation from acknowledgment. But it ensues jealousy and contradiction, it manifest thoughts of doubt and uncertainty. Soren Kierkegaard refers to this as the crowd which we our all a part of. To the individual who points the finger, who hates the crowd because the individual knows nothing of thyself. That individual is caught in introspection and the acknowledgment of the crowd does not exist, except for blame. To the individual who loves the crowd and mocks the crowd because it give them power. For those who act willing out against members of the crowd for attention. We are the crowd and our process is the ride, everything else is the manifestation of history and present.

"Seen The Demons"; The things we do...

"Seen the Demons" is the beginning woodblock print to a series titled The things we do... The series is about vices which make us human and virtues which make us free, essentially the differences between what is sacred and what is profane. However within the series I will attempt to make the two, vice and virtue, appear as equal, destroying the duality, and acknowledging the fragility of the human condition.

"What's Left To Do" Oils, 2008

The inspiration for my current paintings comes from the simplicity and elegance of a mushroom. There is metaphorical beauty and aesthetic beauty in comprehending something small that we consume.

Close up, "Self-portrait in front of woodcuts", 24"x24", Oils 2008

Self-Portrait #3 Graphite pencil/stick 2008

Self-Portrait #2 Graphite pencil/stick 2008