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Found Anew

This 4’x4′ canvas was another found one brought to me by my brother.  It had some serious thick stuff on it, clearly still visible in several places.  I liked it.  The thick parts really gave it some texture as I painted over it.

“Dusk Marsh” was painted on a piece of plywood.  I think it was something I had lying around, or was brought to me by my brother.  I avoid using this sort of material now as it can warp over time.  Eventually, this will need to be in a frame.

“The Force” is also on plywood.  But this is thick plywood.

“Drainpipe” was painted on a piece of a kitchen cabinet.

“Forest Galaxies” was painted on a canvas I found down the street from my house which had been thrown out.  I saw value in it, so I took it home, primed it, and started to work on it.  It had thick paint on it, some of which cuts through, but I made it my own.

This plant canvas was also a discarded canvas.  It had some holes in it which I just painted enough on both sides to seal up.  Then I took my chopstick to it, and there you go.

While it’s not ideal, wine boxes can be interesting to paint on.  I did a few “bonsai” tree paintings on some wine boxes which I used for planters.

This is a big heavy piece.  When my brother brought it by, I thought it was actual marble, but it’s some kind of plastic.  Very heavy and thick.  I had just bought a big tube of black paint and thought, why not, I’ll use all of it!  SQUISH!!

There are several more pieces which were done on “found” material.  Currently, I’m working on a series of faces on masonite boards which I believe were shelves at my brothers shop.  There’s about 24 of them.

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Comets

Comet 6

In 2013, my father gave me some masonite boards.  There were twelve on which I did a series of geometric shape paintings using the same color scheme.  One of them, reminded me of a comet.

I found another piece of masonite, which had been laying around for decades and started what would be the first of several comet paintings.  I would also consider these to be the beginning of the space-related paintings.

I have about 12 of these, a couple which are in progress.  Some are on canvas, but most are on masonite boards.  This first one is similar in shape to the original from which I was inspired to do the rest.

 

Comet 2  Comet 3  Comet 9 Comet 7

 

And these also eventually inspired the Flaming Eyeball Comet:

Flaming Eye 1

There are two of these, this and a larger one.

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The Beginning

I grew up the son of two San Francisco Visionary Artists. They were both really good. Not only did I grow up around art, I began making it when I was young. The first pieces I can remember were some abstracts using India ink on some foam board. Dad tacked them to a stool that swiveled. I remember pouring the ink on it and spinning the stool. The ink went all over the place, but it was a fun way to make art. Later, I painted a rooster from memory at the Junior Randall Museum. They brought it out, then took it away. And we had to paint it from memory. I gave the watercolor to my grandma.

Oil Painting
The oil painting from my senior year of high school

For the first two years of high school I took Art as an elective. I went to a college prep school so it was more or less an afterthought, but it was my favorite class in school. I would doodle in my homework notepaper, drawing things in the margins. At some point I had a sketchbook which I filled with all sorts of creatures and faces. I also painted a couple of jackets with more of the same, one of which went to a store for sale. Rock art, I suppose. I even made cassette art work of my own for mix tapes or if a friend taped me an LP. After my sophomore year, my mom tried to get me into school of the arts, but we applied too late. I ended up going there for my senior year and loved it. At SOTA (now the Ruth Asawa School Of The Arts), I had two class periods of art. Marsha Pannone was my teacher, although there was another teacher that came in to show us oil painting. I seem to recall working on my oil piece for three months. I don’t remember if they were upset at me for taking so long, but I think I was just unaware that I was supposed to go back to the regular class. It was during that time I found blending paint and color with the brush to be intoxicating. Feathering the paint. This would be the only oil painting I’ve ever done. My first acrylic, done earlier in the semester was on display in the theater although no one brought it to my attention until after the fact. It was an image I took from one of my sketchbooks. The overall image was an anhk shape, but was also an egg, a screaming face, and a tombstone.

First Acrylic