Poinsettia Story

This was for a Christmas art show. Each artist was given a country to research a "Christmas story". I was given Mexico . I created a painting about the origin of the poinsettia.


acrylic on canvas, 14" x 18"

Palette Shift in 1987

In the beginning of 1987 I painted these two small paintings. They mark a particular palette shift. Usually I don’t change my palette so dramatically. Prior to these paintings I was using more blues and purples to define shadows. Here I started adding more browns. Because of the detail involved, I’ve posted them larger than I normally would.

Face Formation

acrylic on canvas, 4" x 5"

Float Formation

acrylic on canvas, 4" x 5"

Sparkle Shades

This was a project from Freehand III at Mississippi State. The professor who taught the course used silverpoint in his work. He often painted over it with egg tempera. Our project however was simply to draw using silver. Over the last 22 years the silver has tarnished a bit.

At the time I had a fixation with Ray-Ban sunglasses - the kind worn in "Risky Business." The piece was just meant to be surreal.


silver point on gessoed masonite, 12" x 16"

Cat Slide Water

In Painting I at Mississippi State, we painted in oils. The first project was a composition full of circles. The second painting was a Seurat dot painting with complementary colors side by side. The third project was composed of collaged imagery – that is parts combined together and then transferred to canvas.

This project was different from the others. The art professor showed us paintings from a wide range of artistic movements, styles and traditions. He stressed that point that we were to make this particular painting more personal than the other projects. We should make this piece our own.

For this image I chose two photographs. One was an image of a slide in my backyard from my younger days. The other was an image of my brother’s Siamese cat, “Bobby.” During the process of painting, the instructor suggested that I paint the cat multiple times to imply motion on the slide. This gave the cat a Futurist look – the Italian movement, Futurism. For the background I decided to include Impressionistic water - a la Monet. When it came to the critique, the art professor fussed about the mix of styles. I let him know I really liked what I had done.


oil on canvas, 29" x 37 3/4"

There is one sad note about this painting. Around the same time, “Bobby” passed away. He had feline leukemia. Water in the lungs is what finally did him in, unfortunately. He was thirteen years old when he passed away. He was a difficult cat to love. He could be sweet one minute and then suddenly bite or scratch. I guess being subjected to three young kids in his earlier years made him that way.

Of all the paintings I completed in college, this one marks the first time I enjoyed personal creative freedom. The mixing of the styles as I did places it in the Postmodern tradition. In my last semester, I was invited to show with a sophomore art student at the Veterinary School. Every month a new show hung in a big lobby space. A staff member from the school offered $100 for this painting, but that price would only cover the cost of framing the painting. The painting now hangs the front room of my house.

Towering Shroooms

When I took the art course, Advertising II, the art professor had us create an illustration for a calendar. The piece had to be a specific size to go with the calendar. The piece also had to be matted. The art professor for this course had a commercial art painting background. His leaning was to perfect hard edge painting. The upshot is that my expressive way of painting didn't help me when he graded.


acrylic on illustration board,6" x 12"

But so what, I still like the way this one turned out. Taking a page from my film history book, I forced the viewer to see mushrooms from an unusual perspective - underneath. There’s just something about the mood in this painting. OK, so I probably will earn some smart remarks on this one.

Fish Net

This painting was created using leftover paint from another painting, Entagled Neutrals. And that painting was created from wiping my palette across a canvas. I had the paint already on my palette. Why not use it? Paint's expensive!


acrylic on canvas, 18" x 36"

The Vertical Format

The two paintings below were inspired by Japanese paintings. I wanted to work in the long vertical format. My paintings are usually painted in the horizontal format.

What Are They?

These paintings have titles including the words "Are Those" which began with the watercolor painting Are Those Potatoes? I was reacting to the typical questions I'm asked about my abstract work. Either I'm asked "What is it?" or "What is it supposed to be?"