Oil on Canvas
43" x 62"
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This is part of my Madman Series. A continuing body of work in which madness translates to unrestrained passion and grandiosity. Each of the subjects has had an intimate influence on my life and art. It is my belief that after death there is some element of each person that remains. I believe that element to be passion and I have inexplicably been infused with the passion of these people.
Oil on Canvas
59" x 36"
I was working on a lighting revision at the florist of former first lady, Barbara Bush. I was watching one of the arrangers sorting flowers and purposefully tossing specific blossoms and stems into a blue ceramic basin. As I looked down from my perch I stated, “Those are beautiful.”
She replied, “Yes, but not pretty enough.” It became clear that she was discarding them. My reverence for life draws near the extreme of anthropomorphism so I chose to remember the flowers that were cast away before their purpose was fulfilled.
Oil on Canvas
42" x 41"
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I’m a New Yorker and I found myself caught in a rainstorm just north of Times Square. As I faced downtown, attempting to hail a cab, I beheld a magnificent image of marquis and streetlights reflecting in the puddles. I could vaguely discern the outlines of structures through the raging torrent. I made a mental record of the flowing colors and cast out from my consciousness the structural interference.
Oil on Canvas
40" x 52.75"
From the Cartoonist is a short story committed to visual imagery. In a glance, it depicts the anecdote of a professional cartoonist who spends most of his days musing at his drawing board. He heralds his own creativity and cleverness by satirizing life situations in the form of cartoons. In a single moment of clarity he realizes that his life has been reduced to the emptiness of a single room with a drawing board. He comes to the realization that he is living his life vicariously through his imagined characters while his life is actually drudgery and repetition. In a sudden burst of freedom, he dismantles his cast of characters and contrived locations and rearranges them in an order-less, free form. With each added stroke, his excitement is increased and his enthusiasm renewed for the possibilities in his own reality. But finally, he steps away from his canvas only to realize that that freedom has been contained in a finite rectangle.
Oil on Canvas
36" x 46"
Self-explanatory visual metaphor
Oil on Canvas
40" x 47"
There exists a community of faithful who believe in a 2000-year-old parable involving a carpenter. This carpenter, according to the fable, left the building trades for a higher calling. It is believed that God put His essence into the person of this carpenter for the purpose of experiencing life in the flesh. In His human form, God presented all of humanity with various uncomfortable truths. Because these truths did not conform to preconceived beliefs, the flesh of the carpenter was destroyed. This work depicts what should have been the final moments of the flesh. The vulture on the mast of the cross is charged with the task of destroying the evidence. I will not reveal the end of the story because I don’t want to spoil it for those who have not read it but the moral of the parable is:
While the proof may perish, the truth remains.
Oil on Canvas
36" x 46"
For a period of time, I attempted to restrain my enthusiasm for multiple colors. I tried to minimize my palette to a maximum of four colors per painting. My work during that period was reminiscent of Paul Klee after the fall of the Bauhaus and equally as depressing. Following the sudden return of my optimism, I found myself aroused by the addition of red and yellow to my palette. As my brushes danced around the canvas, I found a peculiar sense of order in the chaos. The perimeters applied to the colors in this work represent a contained insanity.
Oil on Canvas
60" x 42"
I often have been described as a colorist and a graphic sensationalist. My work as well as my life could never be described as monotonal or monochromatic. I love color so much that I have strung a line of crystals along the eastern exposure of my studio. Each morning, when God cooperates with sunshine, I am gifted with an array of rainbows as the light pierces the prisms. In this work, I have simply rearranged the order of the colors and documented them somewhat in the order that I saw them.
Oil on Canvas
55" x 66"
This work represents a continuation of a stylistic stroke development with the addition of an overriding theme. As I am painting, commanding the shapes to order, I become acutely aware of the passage of time. I become aware of the impact of my decision to embrace the interpretation of the language of art. I become aware that this mission has consumed my life. With each linear stroke, I record one moment of my life leaving many of the original bars vacant (I reserve the right to fill them in later).
Oil on Canvas
55.5" x 53"
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Religion is the last refuge of a con artist. When a corrupt political regime needs to execute a devious agenda, the easiest way to deter criticism is to create a religious conflict. The George W. Bush regime, in an attempt to distract the attention of the American electorate, has fabricated a debate within the education community. The functional conflict is presented as follows: should intelligent design or creationism be mandatory curriculum within the science of natural history alongside of evolution and paleontology?
Epicenter of Eden attempts to diffuse the argument with a compromise: if there was, in fact, a Big Bang, it would have been a cataclysmic event. To bring such chaos to order would require the intelligence of a superior being. The same God who created the Laws of Moses created the Laws of Physics.
Oil on Canvas
52" x 53"
This work was painted during a period in which I became fixed on my descent into hopelessness. I was veritably convinced that this would be my final painting. I pooled together all of my remaining paints for the purpose of scribbling my epitaph on the canvas in front of me. When I was satisfied with the base colors, I added white to the top of them before they dried providing the piece with the imagery of tears splashing on the surface. In retrospect, when I view the piece today, I am able to perceive an emergence of hope from the miasma of despair that eluded me at the time. It would appear that my subconscious had a greater awareness of self-preservation than my intellect.
Oil on Canvas
39.25" x 53"
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Falling Into Place is a visual depiction of a long-labored spiritual revelation. I am a man who has spent a lifetime attempting to force the outcome of situations that can only be deemed successful if they occur without the use of force. When I reached my mid forties, I came to the conclusion that if I got out of my own way, my path would be clearer.
The batons in the foreground appear to be falling in a random fashion from an unknown origin threatening to disrupt the pre-existing continuity of the aligned crystals. It should however be assumed that each independent bar also emerged from that same undefined plane and without intervention, found their place in the linear order.
If there is, in fact, a design to the universe which one euphemistically refers to as God’s plan, then it is certain that no effort, no desire, no passion, and above all, no prayer on my part can, in any way alter that plan. Perhaps the plan need not be altered.
Oil on Canvas
52" x 36"
In the fall of 1989, I suffered a drug-induced seizure and ended up in the emergency room. In the bay next to me was a man who had apparently suffered a heart attack. I overheard a pedantic young intern explaining to the patient’s Jamaican wife the, “ramifications of the myocardial infarction.” He went into great detail describing, “necrotic tissue formation,” and referred to it as something of a, “scab.” The wife’s anxiety was not relieved by his oration. A certified paramedic myself, I rose from my gurney and gave her the ‘rasta-version’ (in plain terminology) of what had happened toher husband. Upon my discharge I returned to my studio and produced this rendering based on the intern’s failed attempt at bedazzlement.
Oil on Canvas
61" x 37"
This work was the product of my response to the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s. As the scourge proliferated throughout the western world, a competition ensued between biologists, looking for a cure, and chemists, looking for a treatment. As these two entities raced to gather research and facts, often colliding with each other, it became apparent that either treatment or cure would depend upon the collaboration of the two schools of thought in spite of profit potential. Profit is seldom, if ever, the catalyst for scientific achievement.
The process of living and the process of dying are occurring simultaneously throughout the organic macrocosm. I took the liberty of portraying this tragedy with optimistic colors. Death is not the victor, the triumph of faith is.
Oil on Canvas
45" x 52"
This self-portrait is another piece in my Madman Series. A continuing body of work in which madness translates to unrestrained passion and grandiosity.
Oil on Canvas
51" x 53"
Warhol in his optimism.
Oil on Canvas
53" x 53"
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Another piece in my Madman Series. A continuing body of work in which madness translates to unrestrained passion and grandiosity.
*Miles Davis once said Jazz is no place for the white man yet he always employed the greatest talent regardless of color to convey his message. I attempted to paint Miles with only the colors of the African-American flag: red, black and green. I couldn’t do it without white either.
Oil on Canvas
46" x 47"
Another piece in my Madman Series. A unique degree of madness is personified by the legendary Mick Jagger. You might say this madness is expressed between rock and a hard face. I saw Jagger for the first time in 1966 and knew immediately that I was witness to the emergence of a profound and innovative movement. Beneath an overtone of anxiety, I laboured to savor every moment. Against all odds, I have had the grace to accumulate more than forty additional years of Jagger moments with anticipation of more in the future. It is my fervent wish that the mechanism of my creativity will remain as well-oiled as his has.
Oil on Canvas
53" x 65"
Another piece in my Madman Series. A continuing body of work in which madness translates to unrestrained passion and grandiosity.
Oil on Canvas
39" x 45"
Another piece in my Madman Series. State Senator Fiorello LaGuardia circa 1928, before he became the greatest Mayor of New York City.
Oil on Canvas
32.5" x 32.5"
My studio is equipped with all of the modern conveniences of the 1970’s. Therefore, for the last decade, I have been unable to receive adequate radio and television signals. It dawned on me that the antenna has become as useless as Polaroid film. I began to enumerate all of the devices that I possess which require the transmission of satellite signals and radio waves. It occurred to me that each of us walks through and breathes in a veritable soup of these waves on a daily basis. Interference is a visual interpretation of wave concentration in an extremely small area. I wonder if my reception would be better if the transmitter had a purpose.
Oil on Canvas
38" x 61"
A work in the genre of double entendre with a visual translation. The green and pink background colors represent the magnification of blue-green veins against pink skin. The abstract geometric form is a syringe. Within the perimeter of the syringe is a blood clot disseminating into solution. The solution was my drug of choice. (Paki is alternative street jargon for Pakistani heroin).
Oil on Canvas
31" x 41"
During one of my frequent escapes to New York City I found myself perched high atop 5th Avenue on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. On the street below I beheld a colorful celebration of gay pride which, at the time, was heralded as the largest parade of the year. The procession seemed endless with brass bands, floats, and columns of marchers, representing diverse sub-cultures within the gay community. As I stepped back into the loft, I took one more fleeting glance at the spectacle below. Parade Route is a glimpse of that moment committed to memory.
Oil on Canvas
53" x 53"
Another piece in my Madman Series. Phoolan Devi, India's fabled 'Bandit Queen'
Oil on Canvas
38" x 37"
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The development of individual consciousness is contingent upon a variety of components. First and foremost, one arrives at one’s awareness through personal experiences. Second of all, one must rely on information accumulated through the learning process. Subconsciously, the individual tends to associate his/her current reality with relevant elements contained in the biographies of historical figures. Over the entrance of the National Archives, etched in stone, is the following axiom: What is Past, is Prologue.
I love an academic environment. I spent twelve years in primary education followed by eleven more years of secondary education which served to revise the studies of my first twelve. It became abundantly clear that the facts contained in any historical account or, for that matter, in any witnessed event, are completely dependent upon the narrator. Piecing Together What Just Happened is an abstract representation of an amorphous library filled with chaotically categorized stacks of books. Somewhere contained within the blue and red covers and the gold print there are bits and pieces of the truth.
Oil on Canvas
38.25" x 40.5"
I have truly lived the life of an artist filled with all of its excess and extremes. This epic has left me with an endless supply of tales and exploits, feats of daring, and acts of absurdity. As the winds of time blow these chapters further into yesterday, I find myself at a loss to recall missing elements of these episodes, especially when presented with the question, “why?” Perhaps it is good fortune that these gales have shredded the sails of my consciousness. I am likely better off not plotting a course.
Oil on Canvas
47" x 58.75"
There comes a point in every life of self-destruction when one concludes that his or her suicide is taking too long. I have never feared death. I think of the words of Herman Melville who said, “When I contemplate the vastness of the sea, I am gripped with the terror of the half-lived life.” At this juncture in my own existence, when fully prepared to submit to death, I elected to surrender to life. I yearn for the day when I no longer debate that decision.
Oil on Canvas
45" x 54"
In my halcyon youth, I often found myself leaving various liquor establishments in the heart of Harlem in the small hours of the morning. It is not unusual to come across a pack of wild dogs on the streets of Harlem at that hour. I came upon one such gathering as they were viciously dividing the remains of their ill-fated prey. Fortunately for me, the dogs dispersed upon my approach leaving a trail of blood on the sidewalk that resembled a cryptic writing. I stood over the blood-art and recorded the accidental graphic that comprises the upper two-thirds of this piece. The remainder of the canvas is a continuation of that stroke development speculating the completed work had the attack not been interrupted.
Oil on Canvas
48" x 48"
It is almost cliché to consider that an emerging artist would spend time in an instructional capacity. I am no exception. I had the privilege of serving as a roving art teacher in the Cleveland Public School System. I developed friendships with a variety of adolescents who had genuine artistic talent. Many of them were also self-proclaimed gangsters. As I toured their respective turfs, I was struck, as so many are, by the magnificent colorism contained in the graffiti. I was engrossed in the symbolism of the various characters announcing future assassinations. War Talk is a representation of that environment depicting the dichotomy between the lively colorism and the deadly message.
Oil on Canvas
34" x 44.25"
Marshall MacLuhan once described television as a, “vast wasteland.” This visual amendment to that quote fortifies the concept that a television is little more than a rectangular smear of color floating in a drab, chaotic plane.
Oil on Canvas
34.75" x 38.5"
I have often approached the inception of a painting in the same manner that I approach a conversation with a new acquaintance. I establish a dialogue with the colors, forms, and media and eventually, the conversation takes on a life of its own. Three For All is a collaboration on the part of three individuals namely, Peter (age eight), Emily (age twelve) and myself. I equipped both of them with paint and brushes, divided the canvas, and asked them to converse in colors rather than words. I served as the mediator for the purpose of confining the topic. The resulting work is merely a visual transcript of that exchange.
Oil on Canvas
45" x 44"
My first exposure to the madness of Bob Dylan occurred in 1966. I have vivid recall of my reaction. I held my breath, my heart rate accelerated, and my face froze in a sardonic grin. The art of Bob Dylan led me to what was then known as Greenwich Village shortly thereafter. My soul remains there to this day.
My consciousness, or more accurately, my altered consciousness, emerged from the sensual bombardment I received within that environment. I do not believe in coincidence so, I have concluded that I was drawn there by some ethereal, magnetic force.
I have no regrets.
Oil on Canvas
47" x 60"
The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1966 guaranteeing Black Americans the rights which the outcome of The Civil War was supposed to have insured a mere 100 years earlier.
Three years later, in 1969, Jimi Hendrix took the music world by storm. Hendrix not only revolutionized the rock 'n' roll macrocosm but he instilled in American culture a new outlook on race relations. As is so often the case, art transcends all color barriers. Hendrix did not have to scale the walls of resistance toward racial equality, he merely floated over them.
Art, in every form, has done more to promote human equality than any other political movement.
Oil on Canvas
21" x 36"
Oil on Canvas
49" x 36"
Oil on Canvas
24" x 17"
