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Painting A line takes shape on a canvas, like a river. It’s the trickle of a creek transforming into the grand expanse of London’s Thames. Underneath ancient buildings, secretly, it crawls. New structures are built up over the old. Remember how you tried, in the middle of America, to find route 66? Everyone knows that sections of it disappear under new asphalt; that it fades off into desert, lost off the map. I’m finding it with a paintbrush. I need at least 10 more lifetimes to finish all the projects I’ve been scratching into journals for the last ten years. It’s all just different ways of communicating. Please be reminded that these paintings are copyrighted. That means that you need to get permission by the artist to use them. Click on thumbnails to view larger photos. |
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Community 2005 Acrylic 2 x 3 feet Some hands are open to receive, a weaving of fingers into one. A few point in a gesture of blame. Some, remembering past hurts, curl their fingers into a fist; protective or angry. Still others are reaching out for connection but are prevented from doing so. This is the community I love, with all of its beauty, all of its flaws. The sketch for this painting was made at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in 2003. |
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New Mexico Mission 2003 Acrylic 3 x 2 1/2 feet There's a lot of wandering around going on, through desert landscapes, unforgiving. I'm intrigued by these old missions, some in ruins; the only refuge for miles. I'm driving through the landscape of my spiritual condition, finding beauty in the twisted trail. The sketch for this was originally created at Dorland Mountain, in 2003. |
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New Mexico Madonna 2003 - 2005 Acrylic 3 x 2 1/2 feet Down old route 66, heading to California for the Dorland Mountain Arts residency, I was drawn in, almost against my will, to find traces of what ever remained. Decay and neglect mixed with the scent of ghost town made me feel like a bloodhound on the trail of someone, something…. I don't know what. Sometimes the road left me at a dead end. If the mother of Jesus was traveling through here now, running from her county through the border, trying to escape from who ever was trying to track down her son, how would we see her? I thought about this, driving past the old hotels with the signature 50's style signs, past the reservations, past the trailers and single moms with a child on their hips. Does hope feel far away? The sketch for this was originally created at Dorland Mountain, in 2003. |
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Bitter Fruit 2003 - 2006 Acrylic on canvas, unfinished 4 x 1 1/2 feet Walking around the Arts Colony grounds at Dorland, I noticed a vine with elegant leaves that was producing a strange bright green prickly fruit that reminded me of a prickly cucumber. I took some polaroids and it "showed up" in one of my sketches for a new painting. I felt like it represented some unresolved disappointments that I had with God. Back in Toronto, after taking a break from working on the painting, my curiosity about the plant led me to do some research and I discovered that the common name for it was "California man root." This fragile looking vine can grow to have roots four to eight feet long, which sometimes has the appearance of a body when dug up. Its Latin name is Marah Fabaceus, and the name "Marah" comes from a Hebrew word meaning "bitter." My research confirmed what my heart was already telling me about it's significance for me in the painting, which is the one I spent the most time on, while at Dorland. |
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Dress like Water 1996 Acrylic on canvas 2 x 3 feet This older piece is still kicking around from my art school days, when I was studying book illustration. It was done during a two-hour painting session with a live model. |
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Back Study 1995 Acrylic 3 1/2 x 2 feet Another piece produced during a life-drawing session |
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Aradhna album cover art for "Satsang" 2005 Acrylic on wood panel 15 x 15 inches Most of the photographs for the album artwork were taken in India on my first trip there. The suitcase containing the film was stolen hours after we arrived back to Chris' place in New York. If was a huge loss, since I had specifically shot several rolls of film with the album artwork in mind. Miraculously, the fifty-five rolls of film were returned about 40 days later. I wanted to create a front cover painting that would hint at the fusion that Aradhna creates through their mix of Indian and western instruments and arrangements…the traditional five wick lamp takes on the form of a tree, the Indian symbol of Gandhi's spinning wheel (as seen in the flag of India) is overlapped by mendhi designs (another favouite past-time of mine) underneath a woman wearing traditional Indian dress, who is neither too young or too old… |
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Tom Conlon album artwork for "Country Dog, City Boy" 2002 Scratchboard Approx. 10 x 10 inches Tom Conlon's dog, Roadie has traveled everywhere with him and considering the album's title, it made sense to have him be featured prominently in the artwork. The inside art (which isn't shown here) has a great silhouette of the dog's elegant profile. I toured with Tom for about three weeks and we had been friends for a while before this project happened…so I got to add some subtle elements that I had gleaned from his stories. This is a fantastic album full of brilliant lyrics and powerful guitar/vocal performances. Scratchboard is one of my other main mediums, as it's great to use under pressure and reproduces well. It's not as organic as carving a linoblock and then running it through a press, but it's sure handy, and I've used it for a lot of my own promotional work. (The "brave" T-shirts are done in the same fashion.) |
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Weeping Cherry Tree 2004 Acrylic on wood panel 22 x 10 inches This piece is part of a tree series that I'm still working on, and I painted it for a particular spot in the house. It happened that several months later, I ended up selling it to a couple who were touring the studio during an art show. (That bare spot now needs a replacement!) I'm sure that the appreciation for a particular piece of art can have a lot to do with the surroundings; It was hanging above a collection of blue and white china and some yellow Chinese lanterns… |
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Brother/Sister 2005 Acrylic on wood panel 13 x 10 inches You are the lost older brother, the secret sister I never knew I had. We are growing our roots into each other's soil, our branches towards the light, and each other. The squirrels hardly have to leap. We are one, we are our own. |
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November City Tree 2002 Acrylic on canvas 3 x 2 1/2 feet Another painting in the ongoing series of trees. I was thinking about New York, and Central Park. |
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Indian Summer Tree 2006 Acrylic on canvas, unfinished 3 x 2 1/2 feet Growing up in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I was surrounded by orchards and the seasonal influence that changed the "wardrobes" of the cherry, peach and plum. So much has changed in the town that I grew up… new subdivisions popping up like mushrooms after rain, and the old ancient trees come down in the name of progress. The old circa 1888 house I loved is buried underneath a new bank…my father's work hidden, his careful tending of the roses, as if it never happened. |
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