Pixilated

PIXILATED Long before pixels were a thing, “pixilated” (c.1848) was a word used to describe a person who appeared tipsy, addled, or perhaps led by pixies. I was looking for the proper spelling of the word that describes individual pixels visible in a bitmap, which is p-i-x-e-l-a-t-e-d. The larger works in this show are about motion and time. The broad dashes of color at the edges of the paintings are meant to represent pixelation. They occur in the space of what would be the near future. However, given my new understanding of this word, thinking of time in this way (putting one foot in front of the other, first this and then that) creates a dynamic of expectation. Being led by pixies, on the other hand, may be a better way to think of time. In fact it could explain how time really works. The smaller paintings are of raindrops on the passenger side window of a moving car. They differ from the pixelated paintings in that they’re not so much about this and then that, they’re more about this and that occurring concurrently. The raindrops-on-window model is closer to my understanding of the block universe theory. Einstein wrote of it in a letter to a friend: "...the distinction made between past, present and future is nothing more than a persistent, stubborn illusion.’ His theory proposes a universe where everything that has happened, is happening, or ever will happen everywhere occurs simultaneously. I like the raindrops-on-window model, even though my mind is usually caught up in the first-this-and-then-that model. That being said, I cannot discount the very real possibility that I am now, and may have always been, led by pixies.

NM Rain IV, oil on panel, 35 x 25 inches, 2023

NM Roadside III, Ohkay Owingeh, oil on panel, 24 x 18 inches, 2023

NM Roadside V, oil on panel, 35 x 60 inches, 2023

NM Rain I, oil on panel, 35 x 25 inches, 2023

NM Roadside I, oil on panel, 34 x 60 inches, 2020

NM Rain II, oil on panel, 35 x 25 inches, 2023

NM Roadside II, oil on panel, 34 x 60 inches, 2022

NM Rain III, oil on panel, 35 x 25 inches, 2023

NM Roadside IV, oil on panel, 34 x 60 inches, 2023

When is Now?

When is now? Albert Einstein famously wrote "...the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." This is a difficult concept to grasp because time for us is real. We're certain that there's a chronological order to events that cannot be ignored. However, possibilities abound when we step away from that linear narrative. If we look for flaws in the cosmic clock idea, where time ticks by at the same rate for everyone everywhere, we find them. Physicists have sussed them out with theories, poets with words, and painters with images skewed. All the dimensions of space, and all the dimensions of time exist in this “block” universe simultaneously. Everything that has happened, is happening or will happen continue to be so – then is now, now is now, when is now.

D.C. Metro XIV, oil on panel, 36 x 27 inches, 2018

D.C. Metro XIII, oil on panel, 36 x 27 inches, 2018

D.C. Metro XII, oil on panel, 32 x 24 inches, 2018

D.C. Metro XI, oil on panel, 16 x 24 inches, 2018

D.C. Metro X, oil on panel, 24 x 36 inches, 2017

D.C. Metro IX, oil on panel, 36 x 27 inches, 2017

D.C. Metro VIII, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2017 (private collection)

MTA I, oil on panel, 16 x 24 inches, 2017

MTA II, oil on panel, 24 x 16 inches, 2017

MTA III, oil on panel, 24 x 16 inches, 2017

MTA IV, oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches, 2018 (private collection)

Brooklyn Bodega, oil on panel, 18 x 32 inches, 2018 (private collection)

Urban

86 Street Station, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2015 (private collection)

Brooklyn Bodega, oil on panel, 18 x 32 inches, 2018 (private collection)

Brooklyn Diner, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2015 (private collection)

Brooklyn Food Truck, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2015 (private collection)

D.C. Metro IV, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2013 (private collection)

D.C. Metro V, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2014 (private collection)

D.C. Metro VI, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2014 (private collection)

D.C. Metro II, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2012 (private collection)

D.C. Metro I, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2011 (private collection)

D.C. Metro III, oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2012 (private collection)

G Train, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches, 2011 (private collection)

Cooper Union, oil on linen, 25 x 33 inches, 2007 (private collection)

FDR Underpass, oil on linen, 13 x 17 inches, 2006 (private collection)

Astor Place, oil on linen, 25 x 33 inches, 2006 (private collection)

C Train Platform, oil on linen, 13 x 17 inches, 2006 (private collection)

Calm, Storms

Marion River I, oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches, 2015

Marion River VII, oil on panel, 12 x 18, 2015

evidentia I, oil on linen, 94.5 x 71 inches, 2008

evidentia II, oil on linen, 94.5 x 71 inches, 2008 (private collection)

evidentia III, oil on linen, 94.5 x 71 inches, 2008 (private collection)

Storm II, Eagle Mountain Lake, oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 2009

Storm #37, oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 2009 (private collection)

Coney Island III, oil on linen, 31.5 x 23.5 inches, 2015

Storm #11, oil on linen, 22 x 33 inches, 2005(private collection)

Betty's Dock, oil on linen, 22 x 33 inches, 2005

Marion River II, oil on panel, 12 x 18, 2015

Marion River III, oil on panel, 12 x 18, 2015

Marion River IV, oil on panel, 12 x 18, 2015

Marion River V, oil on panel, 12 x 18, 2015

Marion River VI, oil on panel, 12 x 18, 2015 (private collection)

Storm #38, oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 2009

Storm I, oil on panel, 12 x 9 inches, 2010 (private collection)

Storm, Texas, oil on linen, 15 x 20 inches, 2003 (private collection)

NOLA Paintings

These paintings of New Orleans Parish further the thesis of humanity in its quest to make a wholesome place for itself in the world. Every defensive layer but the skin of the houses fell victim to Hurricane Katrina. Years after the event, the shells remain as sentinels guarding against further intrusion: the fence from strangers, the awning from the sun, the windows from visage, the roof from the rain.

Gene's Po-Boy, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2014

NOLA Duplex #2654, oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches, 2015

NOLA Duplex #2656, oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches, 2015

L9 House #1309, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2014

L9 House #1417, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2014

L9 House #1315, oil on linen, 17.75 x 31.5 inches, 2014 (private collection)

L9 House #1335 (Blurred), oil on panel, 27 x 36 inches, 2014

Too High to Talk, oil and photo transfer on panel, each panel 8.25 x 10.5 inches, installation 26 x 46 inches, 2014 (private collection)

Refuge, Conduit Gallery, Dallas Texas

The Trauma of the Incident

The Trauma of the Incident is a personal response to a violent event that I witnessed in New Orleans in 2013. The central element is an installation of photographic transfers, encaustic, and oil paintings on wood panels intermingled with thrift store items threaded together by string. The resultant piece creates a web connecting objects to their location on a map of the Crescent City. The installation develops the core theme of duality in the layered history of a culture beleaguered by intractable racism and the indomitable spirit of those seeking social justice.

Young Indians, mixed media, 5 x 5 inches, 2013 (private collection)

The Trauma of the Incident, Conduit Gallery, Dallas Texas 2014

Auction, mixed media, 7.75 x 10.75 inches, 2013

Elysian Fields, mixed media, 9 x 12 inches, 2013

Saint Augustine, mixed media, 9 x 12 inches, 2013

Sunday, mixed media, 9 x 12 inches, 2013

Shotgun Shells, mixed media, 16 x 12.25 inches, 2013

Blue House, mixed media, 10.75 x 7 inches, 2013

Candlelight Lounge, mixed media, 15.75 x 11.5 inches, 2013

West Bank Buoys, mixed media, 8.25 x 11 inches, 2013

N. Rampart Street, mixed media, 10 x 10 inches, 2013

Drum Major, mixed media, 9 x 12 inches, 2013

Trauma of the Incident, Blue Mountain Center Installation, 2013, mixed media, 84 x 204 inches.

Refuge, Conduit Gallery, Dallas Texas 2014

Cassandra

My impression of Greece in 2008 was of a beautiful ancient country with a troubled political past, and insecure economic present. The paintings capture modern-day Greece—and, in many ways, a universal humanity—in all its vividness and complexity. The works, at once kinetic and peaceful, are full of light and water and life. But an undertow of sadness, loss and impending chaos tugs just below the surface. Or, in a work like the metaphorically apt Samothraki II, a broken chair lying amid a lush landscape, a sense of ruin is right there on the surface, the trammel of history already visible amid the timelessness of lived life.

Modiano Market II, oil on panel, 11.75 x 15.75 inches, 2009

Modiano Market I, oil on panel, 11.75 x 15.75 inches, 2009

Modiano Market III, oil on panel, 11.75 x 15.75 inches, 2009

Modiano Market IV, oil on panel, 47.25 x 35.5 inches, 2009 (private collection)

Samothraki I, oil on linen, 36 x 48 inches, 2009 (private collection)

Samothraki II, oil on Oak panel, 36 x 27 inches, 2012

Samothraki III, oil on linen, 36 x 27 inches, 2013

Salonika, oil on panel, 47.25 x 35.5 inches, 2010 (private collection)

Agios Ioannis sto Kastri (Triptych), oil on linen, 35.5 x 148 inches, 2009 (private collection)

Agios Ioannis sto Kastri I, oil on linen, 35.5 x 47.25 inches, 2008 (private collection)

Agios Ioannis sto Kastri II, oil on linen, 35.5 x 47.25 inches, 2008 (private collection)

Agios Ioannis sto Kastri III, oil on linen, 35.5 x 47.25 inches, 2008 (private collection)

Sporades, oil on panel, 11.75 x 15.75 inches , 2009 (private collection)

Skopelos Taverna, oil on linen, 23.5 x 35.5 inches, 2009 (private collection)

My Aviary

How do you free a painting from the confines of its canvas? After thirty years of painting, I still find this one of the form’s greatest and most exciting challenges. In “My Aviary,” I aimed to set painting in motion. This 30-foot-long multimedia installation project is made up of mobiles, sound, and 51 mixed-media panels. Birds flutter and circle within a brightly lit room — free to fly, yet somehow confined. The piece is not site-specific, but is designed to fill any number of spaces with painting, movement and music. My hope is that the viewer feels immersed in an experience at once familiar and strange, where the beauty of the tactile, tangible world meets the beauty of the dream-state.

My Aviary, Conduit Gallery Project Room 2014

My Aviary, panel #23, mixed media, 15 x 12 inches, 2011

My Aviary, panel #37, mixed media, 6 x 12 inches, 2011

My Aviary, panel #51, mixed media, 12 x 9 inches, 2011

My Aviary, panels #1-51, 2011, mixed media, variable.

My Aviary, panels #1-5, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, panels #6-13, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, panels #14-21, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, panels #22-30, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, panels #31-38, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, panels #40-45, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, panels #46-51, mixed media, variable, 2011

My Aviary, 2011, Video by Mark Chamberlin, 1:54.

Nocturnes

Winter, Brooklyn, oil on linen, 25 x 33 inches, 2004(private collection)

Leinster Square, oil on linen, 45 x 36 inches, 2006(private collection)

Clothes Line VI, oil on linen, 25 x 33 inches, 2004(private collection)

Military Venice I, oil on linen, 20 x 15 inches, 2004(private collection)

Blizzard I, oil on linen, 33 x 25 inches, 2005(private collection)

Night Dock, Texas, oil on linen, 15 x 20 inches, 2005(private collection)

Monoprints

The beauty of this medium is in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting and drawing media. My monoprints are created by rolling, and painting oil based inks onto blank Plexiglas plates, and passing them through an etching press; transferring ink to paper. Each pass adds shape, color, and line to the composition. The resultant print may have as many as twenty five layers of information, and no two prints are alike.