Affirmative Action

It is true that I sometimes anguish at painting, finding myself staring at my "progress" with my thoughts mired in tribulations, knowing that hundreds of greater pictures are sitting in museums not too far away, created by artists some younger than me. It is also true that I question why I spend so much of my time at it. But I tell myself to push forward with the work because that's what we do as people, as survivors -- we continue to till the land so we can eat. Although sometimes I am duped by a mirage, sometimes I am nourished by a flash of what I seek, and for a moment I understand the necessity of art and its connection to something bigger than life.

Affirmative Action, 28" x 36", oil, vintage paper and book cover on wood panel, 2011.

Some details of the painting:

Alaska Inspiration

Discovery, 16" x 36", oil on canvas with rope and driftwood, 2011.

Following my recent adventure in Alaska, I find that the magnificence of the expansive wilderness cannot be adequately explained in this little blog.
Everything there is big: The glaciers are huge and imposing. The sudden appearance of a whale while kayaking in the sea shakes your soul -- the power of its breath forces you to imagine the enormity of its body below the surface. The black bears are abundant and the grizzlies are iconic, and the shoulders of a moose were higher than my head. Bald eagles perch along the rivers everywhere as the salmon are the center of the ecosystem.

Hiking above the treeline in the foggy mountains, and camping on top of mossy lichen where mountain sheep pass, it is clear that years are needed to explore the state and discover the unexpected.

Here are some photographs:

California Reporter

In continuing with the obsolete law book series, I have increased the dimensions, incorporating numerous vintage pages and a book cover. The two cases include: People v. Hawk, a California Supreme Court case from 1941, with Attorney General, Earl Warren, involving the death sentence of a man found guilty of killing another; and People v. Manson, a Court of Appeal case from 1976 involving the sentencing of infamous Charles Manson.

Interestingly, Charles Manson was found guilty of many murders while leading a murderous cult, yet at the time of his conviction, California was in a "limbo" stage in which it did not institute the death penalty, as it does now and did before. Thus, his death sentence was modified to life imprisonment.

As of now, the painting is untitled. This happens at times, after the completion of a work. It may only temporarily be untitled. Maybe after we spend some time together, she will tell me her name!

Untitled, 36" x 28", oil, vintage paper and book cover, on oil panel.
Here are some details of the work:

A continuation of obsolete books and vintage paper: The Boxer, 8" x 6".

And another:

Obsolete Books and Vintage Paper

When an appeals court issues an opinion (ruling), sometimes the case is "published", meaning it may be cited as a rule of law. Over the decades, thousands of published opinions have filled volumes of books. Naturally, finding the right case to cite to takes research. Traditionally, this research was done in large libraries teeming with law books.

Only recently, however, online research has displaced traditional book research. Online research has proven to be more efficient, not only in time, but in eliminating the large amount of physical space necessary to hold the books and bookshelves.

The books themselves have become obsolete.

So what happens to the books? They become garbage. Or art!

My new series of work incorporates the vintage paper from these old books, still holding good law. For example, The School Girl, seen above, is a piece incorporating a California Court of Appeal decision from 1940. This was back when Earl Warren was the Attorney General of California, before he became one of the most renown and admired Supreme Court Justices in the history of the United States.

Here are some others:


People v. Guerrero, 8" x 6", oil and vintage paper on wood, 2011



Ex Parte Basuino, 8" x 6", oil and vintage paper on wood, 2011



Gump's Estate, 8" x 6", oil and vintage paper on wood, 2011

Little Paintings

Here is a group of little paintings with big subjects. These are works I sometimes do intermittently in between working on larger pieces. Although each painting has a recognizable animal form, what sparks my interest is not the type of animal itself, but rather, the challenge of finding new approaches of mixing and applying paint -- texture and juxtaposition of color which gives a painting life. In this way, painting representational subjects like animals is the same as painting something completely abstract.

Each painting measures 6" x 8" or 2.5" x 3", oil on panel.

Click on the image to zoom.

School of Communications

Art is a form of communication that should not be bound by the limitations of language. For me, painting is a transcendence of the self, a religious practice of communicating with a force beyond the world as we know it in daily life.

The idea of creating art is somewhat strange -- it does not appear to fulfill any physiological need, yet it is something that has been done since ancient times, probably since the beginning of human existence, and it will continue forever. Great art resonates with the human species as certain works survive over the decades and centuries. These works, such as the Sistine Chapel, Guernica, or the Egyptian Sphinxes, connect with masses of people in an inexplicable way, as if they were gifts from a higher power to give us hope for greater things.

The practice of art is a lifelong study, committing inwardly to reach beyond the self, to act as a portal and one day, hopefully, contribute to the creation of something good.