The Life Is In the Blood - 32" x 38" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $525.00

Blood cells, veins and cappilaries...  The "LIFE" is in the blood.  Blood cells carry oxygen to the body and ultimately CO2 and other wastes from the body.  Blood, if you really think about it, is simply a transport mechanism.  Without it we die for it carries in it what we need for life.  The Bible even makes a statement about our blood:  Le 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood:  This speaks of course to human life but when we take a look at this concept with spiritual eyes, it becomes pretty easy to see a parallel story line.  If we want to have "spiritual life" then we can also find that in the blood.  Not in our own blood however, but in the precious blood of Jesus!   His blood washes our sins away and replaces them with His own Righteousness.  Now that is a blood transfusion!

Beneath the Thermocline - 34 x 36 x 1.5 - Acrylic on hollow door panel - $525

This last summer I started fishing again for the first time in about twelve years and I had a blast.  It all started with the white bass in the spring and I fished a lot in the rivers heading into nearby Stockton lake at that time.  In early Summer we would fish the lake and stay near the shoreline and around cover.  By mid June it started getting harder and harder to find the fish as they started going deeper in search of cooler water.  One day I was fishing near a bridge in a really great boat (not mine, i do not have a boat) with a state of the art fish finder. I noticed that for the first 20 feet or so of water, that there were barely any fish at all but below the 20 foot mark they were just thick.  I didn't catch many fish that day but it did inspired this painting so all ended well!

Nebulous Substrate in Red - 36" x 40" x 1.5" - Acrylic on hollow core door panel - $625.00

 

 

Believe it or not, this painting or at least a part of it was inspired by the partially constructed "death star" from the very first Star Wars movie.  It is currently on display at "ART INSPIRED" here in Springfield, Mo.  The fascination that I have with our universe continues to grow within me, and when I think of just how vast it is I am in awe.  I often wonder just how big God has to be in order to create something that is 13.7 light years across and contains literally billions of galaxies.  I guess it is no exageration when He says in Isaiah 66: "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool"!!

"Days of Noah" - 20" x 24" - Acrylic - 150.00 US

This is actually the third in a series that began with the "Rule of Nines".  The second painting was called "Solstace" but I cannot find a decent photo of it and now it has sold!  Not a bad problem but I kind of hate it when that happens.  I am loving the juxtiposition of organic verses geometric in this group of paintings.  I have also started using some metallics just to spice things up a bit.  I coated this piece with two layers of liquitex gloss varnish and the colors just popped.  I wish you could see the depth in this photo but it just isn't showing all of the detail that I wish it would.  This painting will be showing soon (next week I believe) at Dr. Becky Bryants' office at the bone and joint center near Cox South.

This deserves a shout out to the Springfield Regional Arts Center (SRAC) as well as all of their corporate members for sponsoring shows like this one.  Thanks for the opportunity!





"Impact" - 30"x15" - Acrylic - SOLD

This little 30"x 15" painting is called "Impact".  Really, I need to quit watching ancient aliens and through the wormhole.... This dinosaur killer tells quite the tale but I will leave you to figure out the story just the way you see it instead of boring you with my explanation.  Can you believe that someone recently told me that I talk too much about my art?!!  Not sure if I can change that but if the aire of mystery causes more interest then it would definitely be the right thing to do.  I think...  What do you think?  I'm co-dependant right?  Nuff said...

"Rule of Nines" - 24"x 40" - Acrylic - 425.00 SOLD

Ok...  Well a lot has happened over the last month.  I curated a local show called "Intellectual Abstractions" at the Creamery Arts Center here in Springfield, MO and it was a great success.  I sold four paintings and made several new friends.  In addition; I have begun working as an Artistic Consultant, mainly assisting local venues in setting up gallery space and finding artists for shows and the such like.  It is very rewarding and I am very happy to be working in a field that I am so passionate about.  Thank you God for answered prayers!

Along the way I have still been able to find some time for painting.  This painting called "Rule of Nines" is 24"x 40" and is painted on a hollow core door panel with acrylic paint.  This is the first in a series and I will be posting more as they come along.  The number nine is a great number mathmatically and has held my interest for some time now.  I decided to make this painting after reading the Terry Goodkind novel "The Law of Nines" but prefered to use the word rule instead of law...  Here is one interesting factoid.  If you multiply any two digits between one and nine by the number nine (ie - 3 x 9 =27), then the two digits in the resulting number will always equal 9 when added together.  I will stop now because I see my wife yawning and rolling her eyes...  Enjoy the color if nothing else!

"Subduction Zone" - 24"x 48" - Acrylic - 550.00 US

This 24x48 acrylic on hollow core door panel combines both geological and geometrical aspects into one painting.  The concept is a merger of two of my painting styles and it came to me after watching a show on NatGeo about earthquakes.  No deep meanings here, just my abstract rendition of the movement of tectonic plates along fault lines.  This painting is currently for sale and on display in the lobby of University Plaza here in Springfield, MO.

"Babel On" - 36"x 32" - Acrylic - 625.00 US

 "Babel On"...  an appropriate title for this painting as well as my state of mind!  Things have sort of exploded around here and in a good way even.  This year has been full of opportunities starting with my own show at Driskill Gallery in the SBU Art Department.  The show went very well (I actually sold something...) and it seemed to open a door of further opportunities.  One of our upscale hotel properties, University Plaza,  fell under new management and opened their doors to display the work of local artists.  I was the first chosen to display there and ended up helping to curate the show which was a hit and actually made it into two separate newspapers! (woo hoo!!)  I also had several pieces accepted into the "Big Show" at the Springfield Airports Sky Gallery and directly after that was asked to curate my own show "Intellectual Abstractions" at the the Springfield Regional Art Council's - Creamery Arts Center.  This show will open next Friday July 6 and so far it is looking very promising.

Babel On is the second and last painting is my very small series investigating the use of a mono-chromatic pallet and symbolism to embrace social commentary and visually discuss the results of language and math in regard to their contributions to mankinds ability to grow in wisdom and pass on that knowledge to future generations.  Just try for a moment to imagine a world without language and then a world without mathematics.  Can you say "stone age"???

The writing in this piece is ancient Sanskrit, Cuniform and African Andinkra symbols.  These are some of the (if not THE) oldest "writings" in our recorded history of language.  Without the ability to document and record progress (Inventions, knowledge...) much is lost over time and the wheel then must be re-invented.  The ancient art of story telling is romantic and probably way better for us than television, but, in the end it allows for the "recipe" to change over time thus affecting the outcome...  True to my first sentence I have babelled on!!  Enjoy this piece and enjoy your day...

"Precept Upon Precept" - 38.5" x 72" - Acrylic (Diptych) - 1200.00 US

There is a passage in Isaiah that reads as follows:  "Isa 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"   This verse speaks to the way we learn.  Knowledge is not given all at once, but instead we learn slowly and progressively.  We build on previous successes and we also learn from our mistakes.  We start with a foundation and then build upon it.  This is the given process whether growing in worldly knowledge or in spiritual wisdom.  We lay a foundation then start adding layers.  This painting is a representation of that process.  Layer upon layer of paint, building to the finished painting.  You will notice that I kept the color pallet to a minimum which is always difficult for me!  I wanted the structure to speak more than the color in this piece but that yellow still has quite a voice...  The numbers and symbols represent the contribution mathematics and language have had upon our ability to grow intelectually.  I believe they represent the "blocks" with which all of our learning experiences are built with.  Will we build wisely?  If we allow God to become our foundation and build upon Him, then the answer is yes...

"Guardians of Peace" 40" x 10' 8" Acrylic on four wooden door panels

I created this piece specifically for show at the Driskill Gallery on the SBU campus in Bolivar, MO.  The painting (all 11 feet of it...) is now hanging and the reception for this opening is tonight!  I intially started this piece with the idea that it would grow over time by adding new panels to the ends or even above or below to create a scrabble board type effect.  I still like that concept but maybe not for this particular painting as it sort of took on a life of its own during the creative process and ended up turning into something I had not anticipated but have decided to live with!  The title all started with the dove (yes, that is a dove...) in the second panel from the left.  Then as figures started to emerge I saw them as watchers or guardians; maybe even as angels checking out whats happening down here and occasionally protecting us from ourselves and helping us salvage what little "peace" we have left.  This is my largest painting to date and I look forward to creating even larger work in the future.

"Lust of the Flesh" - Acrylic on door panel - 36" x 40" x 1.5" - 525.00 US

This painting represents a break through for me in that I have taken a style originally meant to vaguely represent geological rock formations and allowed it to evolve or mutate into something new and different. While this painting still has defined "layers", they now each represent something other than just abstracted rock strata. If you look at the first layer on the left you will see the shape of a female figure. The blue layer in the middle contains a gawking face and the greenish orange layer to the right contains a figure turning away as to avoid the entire situation. In addition the blue face contains several red/magenta circles meant to represent lustful thoughts. An additional face (looking but not looking) in the man turning away, shows that a part of him wants to look back even as he averts his gaze.

"Circular Logic" - Acrylic on door panel - 35" x 30" x 1.5" - 425.00 - SOLD

I continued with the center band in this painting, however, I utilized the concept of a fault line from my previous painting, by displacing portions of the band as if tectonic plates had shifted.  I incorporated circles instead of lines in this painting as an attempt to further the evolution of a concept.  I added directional lines on the circles which lead to a new type of signature for this series.  You will also note that there is a distinguishable face in the lower left as I began to pull form from the organic.  The changes in this painting led directly to a bolder use of definable content in my next painting called "Lust of the Flesh". 

In my discussion during the last few posts, I keep mentioning the phrase "evolution of a painting".  I am trying to let my work grow and expand into something deeper and more personal.  As an attempt to do this I am forcing myself to make changes in each painting that will force it to become something at least slightly different than the last.  Not just in composition and color but also a painting that stretches my own boundaries of creativity.  I want to create more....  I want to know what is really inside of me.

"Fault Line" - Acrylic on door panel - 40" x 32" x 1.5" - 480.00 US

To be honest, I approached this painting very openly hoping to find some magic and see this series of paintings begin to evolve.  Once again I wanted to use bright and vivid colors with even a little more saturation this time.  I chose to balance the bright colors with the whites, greys and black in the center of the painting.  While I like this painting it does not represent the title as much as I wish it did.  I hung on to this thought and incorperated it into the next painting called "Circular Logic".  A face emerges in one of the lower black lines of this painting and although it was accidental, I liked it and added a face into Circular logic as well.  I didn't know it yet but the evoloution had begun!!

"Earth Borne" - Acrylic on door panel - 40" x 28" x 1.5" - 425.00 US

There was a gallery showing recently that was a benefit for a local organization that collects food for the hungry.  The theme was "Til All Are Fed".  My challenge was to create a piece for this exhibit that would represent this concept and yet fit into my current series of paintings which abstractly represents earths geological formations.  I chose to depict earths fertility through soil, a root system and then ultimately the fruit of this growth process.  Whether the soil provides grain, vegetables, fruit or even grass; it not only provides food for us, but for all of the earths creatures as well.  Many people have found this painting to be disturbing and hard to interpret.  Once I explain the concept however they seem to find it a little easier to pallet.  The colors at the top imply growth and fertility, but are they representative as well?  I will give you a hint, think extreme close up...