Medicine Taste

Oil on canvas, 5″ x 5″.

“Wild Horses”

Oil on canvas, 12″x 9″.

Every Body’s Beautiful

I’m delighted to be showing a handful of nudes in this show -which opens tonight- at Stoneheart Gallery in Evergreen, Colorado.

The Horse Trader

Oil on canvas, 8″ x 8″.

Brutally cold in Denver today.

Beasty Boy

Oil on canvas, 5″ x 5″. The dog is imaginary, but I like scruffy looking terrier faced dogs in general- and I think they bear a facial resemblance to some wolf spiders, the teddy bears of the spider world.

 

The tragic shooting in Tucson has been on my mind a great deal. I watched Obama’s speech and wept.  The invocation of “mental illness” and the attitude that this explains it all and we need look no further troubles me. Writing for Slate, Vaughan Bell addresses this issue here.

“…it’s likely that some of the people in your local bar are at greater risk of committing murder than your average person with mental illness.”

-Vaughan Bell, “Crazy Talk,” Slate

Good music, good cause

Delighted to find, today, an album (can I still call it that? It’s a digital download…) that celebrates the song writing of Joanna Newsom and is donating the proceeds from sales to Pakistan flood  relief funds, via Oxfam America.

I  hear less in the news about the tragedy in Pakistan than I do about Haiti, and I don’t know why that is. Proximity? Religion? I don’t think that the need is any less urgent.

Newsom’s songs are quirky, poetic, jangling,and joyously bone-quivering. It’s such good stuff, and interesting to see how other musicians interpret the work of this accomplished young artist.

You can give “Versions of Joanna” a listen here, and buy it with a donation to Oxfam here.

Woodpecker Woman

Oil on canvas, 26″ x 20″.

Not a white Christmas

here in Denver. Sunny, dry and warm.

More of a “White Wine in the Sun” Christmas, as in the Tim Minchin video below. It’s one of my very favorite Christmas songs.

The days are getting longer and my family is happy and healthy. The weird, funny, beautiful things we make for one another as Christmas gifts (often without spending a dime) remind me that I really do have the best kids in the world.

 

Plus my fruitcake turned out kickin’ this year. I think my grandma would be proud.

 

Safe and Warm (as ugly as I seem)

This year’s Christmas card – the usual quick block print method- had some surprises.

Hand-marbling paper is always a little unpredictable. The red and green paint I used in the marbling bath left a select few nutcrackers looking like they were dying in a bloody storm of gunfire. I sent those cards out anyway, but only to friends who would (hopefully) understand.

After a weirdly warm spell in Denver, it feels like our snow will come in tonight.

I’m ready for it. I’m making fruitcake tonight using a variation on Alton Brown’s recipe- no nasty jellied fruits, just good dried fruit, lots of nuts and even more brandy.

Trying very hard to be of good cheer.

Hope you are safe and warm who ever you are, where ever you are.

The Hubris of Hare

Oil on canvas, 6″ x 6″.

I will be showing a handful of new small paintings, including this one, at the Zip 37 Gallery Members’ Show, which opens this December 17 and runs until January 23.