Owls Chocolate

Owls Chocolate, 2011. 10" x 10". Acrylic on canvas.

Tomatoes and Knife

Tomatoes and Knife, 2011. 12" x 16". Acrylic on canvas paper.

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier, 2011. Digital vector art. Illustrator CS2.

Kawaii Pink Slip

Kawaii Pink Slip, 2011. Digital vector art. Illustrator CS2.

If you ever browse the new art of the website Deviantart.com then you've certainly noticed the superfluous saccharine trend in anime called 'kawaii'. This Japanese term translates into something along the lines of cuteness, precious, adorable etc. More can be read about the style -here-. To get the vision of all these uber cute depictions of sushi, ice cream cones, and rabbits out of my mind I have distorted the notion a bit by making the image a negative one. Since so many people have felt the brunt of being unemployed I thought it an economic zeitgeist. In the bottom corner is a business man grappling with the vicissitude of his career.

So now, begone kawaii; don't come 'round here no more.

Series -- Battle of Corinth (146 BC)

----- S C I P I O G A L L E R Y -----
400 Zama Street / Denver, CO 80238
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Here is my first real series of paintings. It is collectively titled "Battle of Corinth (146 BC)" after the Romans fought and totally destroyed the Greek city state of Corinth. It was formerly well known for it's incredible wealth. The series includes the paintings 'Detail:Basement', 'Red Line', 'Day Dream', and 'Grecian Arms'. The set deals with themes of exile, loss and worthlessness.

Red Line

Red Line, 2011. 14" x 18". Acrylic and paper on canvas.

In architecture a 'red line' is a mark denoting something that needs to be changed. It points out an error in the drawing that the drafter must fix. In this depiction the white profile of a facade rises from the horizon. A gray skull is revealed beneath with the Red Line cutting a swath of bone away exposing brain material. A column in section is being thrust down into the mouth of the skull. Inside a desk is set ablaze. This is the final piece of the 'Battle of Corinth (146 BC)' series. It is the most violent, but continues the themes that came about after I was laid off.

Sir Osogon de Lyon

Sir Osogon de Lyon, 2011. Digital Vector Art, Illustrator CS2.

Coop Cuckoo Clock

Coop Cuckoo Clock, 2010. 10" x 5" x 3". Cardboard and glue.

Christmas Card 2010

Christmas Card, 2010. digital work, illustrator & photoshop.

This is my first attempt at using Adobe Illustrator. I put the text on the card in Photoshop. I like to read the magazine "Digital Artist" which has really excellent guides done by working artists' that give step by step advice on a piece they've created. I used one to do this wintertime scene here. Illustrator is a pretty daunting program and the other couple of times I've tried to use it I've closed the program in digust w/o any thing to show for it. But I picked up a 'classroom in a book' for the program and used a more level head to try and wade through the example from the Digital Artist mag.

I think it turned out pretty well and I'm very excited at the potential I now have with the vector based program. Hopefully more to come...

椅 (chair)

椅 (chair), 2010. 5.5" x 3.75". Digital Work.

In honor of the 2010 recipient of the Swedish industrialist and inventor _ _ _ _ _ prize awarded by the Norwegian _ _ _ _ _ Committee. This is for the Chinese people that want to know.

Bowman's Cuckoo Clock

Bowman's Cuckoo Clock, 2010. 12" x 7" x 5". Cardboard and glue.

Cover Series: Dahlia

Cover Series: Dahlia, 2010. 4" x 6". dahlia, canvas paper, acrylic on cardboard.

The cover series comes from rituals I had a child. Bed time for me as a kid was stressful on my overactive mind and involved a mantra that I would repeat each night. Sometimes the recitals changed, but the general theme remained the same. So to deal with being so scared of the dark I would say things like, "Nothing bad will happen to me", "Mom and Dad are right outside", "The faster I get to sleep the faster I'll wake up". Before I got into bed I had to remove all the evil action figures and toys from the room and place them in the hall. That meant Skeletor, the Rancor monster, Cobra Commander et al were relegated to outside.

The ritual could end once I was under the safety of the sheets. The cover series stems from the removal of fear after I got into bed. I felt that nothing bad could reach me. Blanketing the flowers in this way keep them from harm, keep them from death. It's a way for me to provide shelter for something the way I felt the act saved me as a child. Though the object may be hidden by paint, it has something the others will never have; immortality. Like a reverse fossil the outline of the object remains. There is also irony in the fact that it is already dead.

If I am ever fortunate to have my own studio I have bigger plans for the cover series.

Mini Cuckoo Clock

Mini Cuckoo Clock, 2010. 6" x 4" x 3". Cardboard and glue.

Little non functioning clock I made. Need to up the scale some because at the size it is I cannot get much detail on the border carvings.

Happy Birthday Dad

Card, 2010. 5" x 11". Digital card made in Photoshop.

Dad's birthday is coming up so I made a card with 'Pompey John' the Portsmouth Football Club's most recognized supporter.

Day Dream

Day Dream, 2010. 8" x 10". ink, oil pastel, acrylic on canvas.

I used to stare at a scene similar to this everyday for my job. Now it's just something I dream about.

Owls sleeping

Owls sleeping, 2010. 10" x 10". acrylic on canvas.

Ceremony I

Ceremony I, 2010. 15" x 15". Digital collage.

Needed to make something to cheer myself up after having been rejected by just about all the Denver Co-ops. So, I'll dance.

We Broke

We broke, 2010. 3" x 3". oil pastel on canvas paper.

Grecian Arms

Grecian Arms, 2010. 10" x 12". pencil, oil pastel, acrylic on canvas paper.

Detail: Basement

Detail: Basement, 2010. 30" x 30". Acrylic on canvas.

"We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others."
- Albert Camus

This painting is a depiction of the feelings brought on from my inability to get back into architecture. The void left in myself is the basement the Corinthian capital and my self portrait now inhabit in the picture. At the top of the plane there is a section of a floor that, as it creeps into the middle, turns into a jagged nightmarish version of itself. The floor has given way, crumbled and broken and the human figure has fallen into this dankness below. This dark space is tilted. The planes that suggest its boundaries are dynamically on angle.

Thrown into this exile, parts have been labeled as in an architectural drawing. The architectural leaders, the arrows, become little spears that jab and call out all faults. Four descriptors have been highlighted, the four are names of places. Mantua is where fortune's fool Romeo was sent into exile for killing Tybalt. In Euripides' play Medea, the title character is exiled to Corinth. Ovid, the roman poet was sent into exile to a remote village called Tomis. Napoleon Bonaparte was shipped to the island of Elba. All of these places existed far outside the sphere civilization in their days. It was a fate worse than death. In the painting I have played with their usage: MANtua is grouped with boy, CORINTH is included in the label of Corinthian capital, TOMIS is made into 'to mistake', and ELBA is a play on elbow.

As in the Camus quote I have tried to transform this gap away from something I dedicated myself to so fully. Five years of study and three of practice as well as an entire life leading up the decision to pursue architecture can seem to eradicate any self worth once it is taken away. All I can do is keep steady in my hunger. To hope that the dregs of this yield satiate the need to transform a negative something into something positive.