Nest Building

Spring is here and birds are building nests at a rapid rate. Naturally we tend to mimic one another. Mimicking the birds, I built this nest.

Whiteside Paintings in Progress

Robert Rauschenberg

Leonardo Drew

Phillip Johnson Glass House

Odilon Redon

Tadao Ando

E. J . Bellocq

Paul Klee

Paul Klee

Lee Krasner

Jackson Pollock

Mark Tobey

Mark Rothko

Planning and Termination Project

My first priority within my practice is painting. This project began with the idea that I would prepare the wooden boards for paintings. After applying six to eight coats of black gesso sanding in between layers, I wrapped each one in a white flour cloth. These surfaces have the potential to become paintings but at this point I am terminating the process, aborting the possible paintings. Therefore, I consider this a conceptual painting project.

Although this project is conceptual and was initially driven toward painting, it is clearly about conception, life and contemplation surrounding the unborn.

A Proper Burial

Several months ago I saw Jack Sal’s work in "Art In America" and realized we are working with similar ideas and materials. When working with corrosives there is a time element involved for the chemical reactions take place. Consequently, the traces of mineral build up and rust in my work is caused by rain and partially burying the steel plates in mounds of leaves that fell last fall. This project has been going on for over a year now. Another part of this project involves found objects buried in concrete. Again there is a time element, which started with thinking, then writing, followed by inspiration, hunting for the objects, and then preparing forms and waiting for concrete to set up. I like the way Sal mounts the metal onto concrete with bolts.

The idea of burying things and digging them up later is fascinating. My backyard is sort of a voodoo graveyard for evil brought my way that I need to get rid of. There is no wicked karma that I can't handle with a shovel and some dirt. Unfortunately sometimes I must bury birds that hit the windows and when needed coins for good luck. I bury leftover kitchen, fruit and vegetable waste near specific plants rather than throw them in a large compost heap. In particular, my roses love a banana peel so it seems more efficient for me to feed certain plants what makes them grow best. Sometimes vermin dig them up before the plants get them but I feel that there is enough for everyone. These images are from the buried steel plate project.

Cabbage Chairs By Japanese Architect Oki Sato

On a recent visit to the city I attended Ghost Stories, an opening for Japanese based Oki Sato at New York's Friedman Benda.

Sato explained to me that while working with a silk fabric that came carefully packed in layers of paper to protect and hold the shape of its pleats he stumbled upon this design for a chair.
Each layer of paper was peeled back to unpack the silk that was rolled in a coil. The paper packing served as a model but was not strong enough to support weight. Further development involved finding a fabric that was going to be stable enough to support weight so that it could be used as a chair. The final design is made of a non-woven synthetic material similar to fiber-mesh.

Fleet Foxes Tiger Mountain

Georgia O'Keeffe

Sally Mann

Gerhard Richter

Richard Diebenkorn

Abstract Expressionism

American Painting

Helen Frankenthaler

Agnes Martin

Jake Berthot

Pat Steir