I'm pretty excited about this latest piece, Coastal Spring - it's one of the biggest I've done so far, and also I just really like it. It's got potato print flowers across it. It's painted over a pink ground, the same pink paint of my kitchen. I also experimented with blowing some liquid acrylics around. And the piece is very textured, more than the photo captures.


And this one is what started it all; I did this much smaller piece in order to push myself into abstraction. It started with wiping excess paint from another painting onto the canvas and grew from there. In this case the potato prints became starfish, they are made as an impression into the thick white paint.

Coming to The Art House March 18, 2005. For this show I've been painting a bowl of apples: first a piece called "Only in Sebastopol." This works for me personally on a few levels, Sebastopol being an apple town, Sebastopol where I have many fine friends, and then the use of glow in the dark paint which reminds me of a particular good time with fine friends that included the creation of black light art. I think there was also some apple orchard activity that night as well. Sadly the fine apple orchards of Sonoma County are being replaced with vineyards by all the upscale new "gentleman farmers" that have moved in.


And then a piece I haven't really named yet, so lets just call it "Bowl of Apples." This one was a lot of fun to do. It has pearly mica flakes on it, more of my current favorite color scheme, orange and blue, and even potato prints! Such fun!

Opening tomorrow, I have a piece that is intended, tongue in cheek, to apply a non-traditional standard about women's beauty to a cliche female figure, Aquarius with Hairy Legs.

The best part about the piece is that it's tactile, when you run your hand along her legs, you feel her stubbly hairs! I guess it's in the self-portrait show because it's important to me to revel in my body as I choose, hairy or otherwise, and this painting is a response to the societal beauty norm of shaved legs for women, which I think is a pain in the ass. The Funky Java, 40 W. Villa Park Ave. (at St. Charles), Villa Park, IL, reception is Feb. 5th, 7-10 p.m.

This show is at the High Risk Gallery from February 3 – April 2. I'm showing the three collages I made in response to the La Conchita disaster.

I have four pieces in this show at the Art House. One is a weenie piece (one of many in the show as one would expect from the name). I've heard of women's genitals being called their special flower, and I thought, well gosh, men have special flowers too, in fact I'd go so far as to say they sprout hardy perennials! So I made His Special Flower. I have to admit I enjoyed the feminizing touches of this piece, the pink and purple thread, the flower and earthy background. The spring and pipe thingy provide the more traditionally masculine touch. The finished piece reminds me of a small old dump in the woods behind where I grew up, where odd metal artifacts sprouted alongside the wild ferns and trillium.


Two more pieces were done in response to the La Conchita disaster which I read about in the New York Times online. There was a striking picture of a rescue worker walking with a man, Jimmy Wallet, who lost his family in the disaster. The picture impressed me very much with their overwhelming sadness and is the basis for a number of pieces I did on the disaster.

(I'd like to credit Monica Almeida who took the photograph). In addition to the collage, I also made a painting from the picture, turned most of the painting into a series of small collages, and kept the part of the rescue worker intact.


Finally there is a mouse cartoon featuring California's charming governor. Click the image to see more mouse cartoons.

This show at the High Risk Gallery is over now. I had two Rainbow cats in the show, the watercolor sold!