Four new paintings

"Body in Repose" 12 x 72 inches

I have painted a body lying in repose, attempting to explore the abstraction of the organism within its figurative boundaries. I am interested in the expressiveness of lines as they relate to various emotional responses. What first catches the eye is the nakedness of the body, a state usually reserved for what can be considered a private, inside space. As related to the private/public opposition, to exhibit the piece in a public space (enlarged four times its original size) intends to create an interplay between the inner and the outer, for the body is not only naked, but its bones and inner sinews are abstractly being exposed. This calls for placing perception on its deep interior core. The position of the body is as if sleeping –almost as a corpse-, contrasting with the energy and chaos of the streets of New York City. Upon seeing this painting, one would hope the spectator to reflect upon three key ideas: repose in the midst of movement, the inner as related to the outer, and freedom of expression at the core of the polis.

New Paintings: "Woman in Bonnet" and "Count Bezuhov" 9 x 12 inches

BWAC closed tonight, went to pick up my paintings and a poet called S.David had written two poems about them. Here they are:

"The Teachers: Bird Meditations"
Yes come sit
Come learn
Teachings are
Beginnings
But teachings
Are only
Beginnings
Understandings
Must follow
And then you
Must live them
Detach
Leave
No idol-making
Your own path
Must free you
You cannot be
You must not
Worship
Your teacher
Your guru
Your master
Fledgling
You must fly
On your own
Learn and go

poem by S. David about "Eating Green"

You know her
She's looking
Good these days
Dropped twenty
Not through yet
Change of
Lifestyle
No more meat
Beyond just
Vegan
Organics only
Eating green
Living green too
Ecology baby
Ecology
She's not
Only live
She's preaching
To all
Her friends
And anyone
Who comes
Her way

"My American Flag" 24 x 34 inches

This is My American flag, created using words and letters clipped from popular newspapers. My interest consists in exploring the boundaries of sense, nonsense, and simulations of sense, as they relate to the American flag, a symbol heavy-laden with ideas, ideologies, concepts, conceptions, and images. The notion of a flag where stripes are comprised of words and stars are non-existent intends to highlight the tensions arising from associations of sense and nationalism in our current culture.

"Two Postures" 36 x 48 inches, sold at BWAC on Sunday, October 12

New Painting: "Lulu" 48 x 36 inches

I just applied for the 'New York Foundation for the Arts' grant in Book Arts and these are the images I choose

In a world where the political, financial, and artistic climates are explosively volatile, this visual journal seeks to explore man’s relationship to the divine. Biblical concepts, scripts, phrases, and poetry interest me as a means to explore various spiritual teachings. These images are extracts from this journal. The pages are horizontally too large to show two of them together, so I have chosen eight individual ones that best demonstrate the thrust of the work. The physical book is two inches thick, bears a green burlap cover, and is bound with both Japanese-style binding and linen tape. It is one-of-a-kind and all hand made. Animals, beasts, dragons, children, fishes, dancing girls, and burning bridges are some of the images that occur throughout. The sensory overload of mixed media is congruent with the intensity of the times.

brooklyn waterfront arts coalition, Sept.13

I'm going to be in my first official group show in my first official gallery here in NYC!! come to check it out:
[Sept. 13-Oct.26 at the Red Hook Pier]www.bwac.org

Two Postures 36 x 48 inches

Save the Elephants, 48" x 44"

This painting came about this past summer, in the midst of a heat wave and news of yet another wild fire consuming the Californian forests. The volatility of our global environment made me focus on animals and their states of consciousness, reflecting on their knowledge –as it were- of the environment’s decline and the repercussions thereof. One can only imagine their connection to a reality (and a concept) that seems ever further away from our species as progress makes its way: Nature.

Bird Meditations 36" x 48"

Woman and Child, 36" x 24"

journal for sale

new painting: asian family eating

its SNOWING today!!

and, here is a mosaic i just finished:

a selection of prose i find to be beautiful and a thought about valentine's day

PROLOGUE

"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

-Ralph Ellison


tonight juan and i are having a beautiful valentine's day. he is playing the guitar and whistling. last year i cried on valentine's day for some strange reason having to do with expectations and past valentines days and whatever else. this year we said no gifts and no expectations. he made me dinner and bought me a pillow. there have been no tears nor do i expect any- even though we are to have no expectations. but i think this day is about love ... and commercialism and whatever else, sure. but if we have those we love then we just have a day the same as any other day of the week and just say again, i love you, and that is all.

amen to god and to all his amazing blessings. to wisdom and understanding-- that we continue to grow in this every every day.

the marathon

photos from my drawing marathon.