THE PROFESSIONAL

11 1/2" x 8 1/2" #2 pencil, Speedball crowquill pen, super black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #3 brush in Moleskine sketchbook

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” - Steven Pressfield

DREAM JOURNAL

10 1/2" x 8 1/2" #2 pencil and Faber-Castell brushes in Strathmore sketchbook
I woke up from a dream this morning and immediately started to loosely draw in my dream journal. This is important since dreams are ephemeral.
In this dream I was about 10 years old and have been caught drawing in class instead of paying attention to the teacher. The drawings were satirical renderings of various teachers and this particular teacher is not amused. He sends me down the hall to the principal's office. Dum, dee dum dum!
The principal is looking at the drawings and starts laughing so hard tears are rolling down his face as he is slapping his hand on his desk. He is beside himself, hysterical. Finally, he pulls it together and he starts the familiar lecture about how I need to fit in, to conform, to be a productive member of society, etc.
I look up at the principal and he has turned into a gorilla! He is still trying to lecture me but has to bite his tongue to try to maintain some sense of seriousness. I tell him " Too bad your Monkey's mad". Then I woke up.
The strange thing about this dream is that it is similar to a couple of incidents that happened to me in real life. I was no stranger at the principal's office, and once a principal did laugh at some funny drawings i did, then gave me "The Lecture". Of course I never talked back, promised to do better, and slid back to class.
I don't recall a time when I didn't draw, and sometimes in school I was allowed to draw something authorized in order to get extra credit to keep from receiving a failing grade. So drawing was sometimes a blessing.
I think it is obvious that the gorilla (or monkey) symbolizes that inner critic we all must defeat as we continue to stay creative.

BRUSH AND INK STUDY

 11" x 14" Speedball super black India Ink and Raphael 8404 # 3 brush in Canson sketchbook

IDIOT BOX

10" x 8"    #2 pencil, Speedball super black India ink, Raphael 8404 #3 brush and Faber-Castell Brush in Moleskine sketchbook

I've finished re-reading Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television, and with all that is going on in the world I just had to add my self portrait version of a sketch originally by R Crumb.

PORTRAIT OF SUSAN SONTAG

11" x 14" Speedball black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #2 brush in Canson sketchbook

"Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech."

JUSTIN GREEN AT THE BOARD

10" x 8"  #2 pencil and Faber-Castell brush pens in Moleskine sketchbook (from photo)

One of my favorite artists and musicians.  His pen and ink work is some of the best around.  I'm re-reading and studying his book Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary which I consider a work of genius and an absolute masterpiece.

STUDY OF CHARLES BURNS

 11" x 14"  Speedball super black India ink and Winsor Newton series 7 #2 brush in Canson sketchbook

I've been studying and copying the work of Charles Burns trying to improve the feathering technique with this sable brush.  It's slow going but I'll keep at it.

I VOTED

11" x 8/1/2" Fude brush and watercolor in Strathmore 500 Series sketchbook

STAGGER LEE

11" x 14" Speedball super black India ink, Windsor Newton series 7 #2 brush and Fude brush in Canson sketchbook

On Christmas Eve, 1895, in a St. Louis saloon, "Stag" Lee Shelton, a black pimp, shot William "Billy" Lyons. Eyewitnesses say Billy snatched Stag's Stetson hat. Boom, boom, boom, boom went Stag's forty-four. You don't mess with a man's hat.

EL JEFE

11" x 14"  Speedball super black India ink, Raphael 8404 #3 brush and Faber-Castell big brushes in Canson sketchbook

TRICK OR TREAT

11 1/2" x 8 1/2"  Fude brush, Faber-Castell brush pens and acrylic in Canson sketchbook

ROY HAYNES ON DRUMS

11" x 14" Ink, Fude brush and Faber Castell brush pens in Canson sketchbook

SELF PORTRAIT AT THE DRAWING BOARD

11" x 14"  Rapidograph black India ink and Winsor Newton Series 7 #2 brush in Canson sketchbook

EINSTEIN

18" x 24" Acrylic on canvas Private collection

I met Einstein in a dream
Springtime on Princeton lawn grass
I kneeled down & kissed his young thumb
like a ruddy pope
his face fresh broad cheeked rosy
“I invented a universe separate,
something like a Virgin”–
“Yes, the creature gives birth to itself,”
I quoted from Mescaline
We sat down open air universal summer
to eat lunch, professors’ wives
at the Tennis Court Club,
our meeting eternal, as expected,
my gesture to kiss his fist
unexpectedly saintly
considering the Atom Bomb I didn’t mention.
-Allen Ginsberg

THIS JOINT IS JUMPIN'

11" x 14" Ink, acrylic and Faber-Castell brush pens in Canson sketchbook

SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY INTERIOR

 11 1/2" x 8 1/2" Ink and Faber-Castell brush pens in Canson sketchbook

PORTRAIT OF JULIE JANNEAN

 24" x 36"  Oil on board  1994  Private Collection

OLD SOLDIER

18" x 24" Pastel on paper

SUNNY FOX

26" x 31" Ink, pencil and Faber Castel brush pens on paper
What a great weekend I had! Our Miss Rio visited and we kept producing our art way past the time when out hands were hurting. It was that much fun and I learned a lot. Thanks Ryan Holbrook and Wendy Holbrook . She's great!

2ND AVENUE EAST 6TH STREET

 11 1/2" x 8 1/2"  ink and brush in Canson Sketchbook

Since I seem to be using a lot of ink this October I thought I'd touch up and finish this unfinished piece.  How do I know when a piece is finished? It stops being a pain in the butt.

THE CATCH

11 1/2" x 8 1/2" Faber-Castel brush pens in Moleskine sketchbook
It's that time again in baseball. Great plays seem to manifest during autumn. I only know about this catch made by Willie Mays from the video, but what a play!
"In the eighth inning of Game 1, with the score tied 2-2 and two runners on base, Indians first baseman Vic Wertz hit a fly ball 440 feet deep into center field. Mays turned, ran and then caught the ball over his shoulder with his back to the infield, before spinning and firing the ball back into the infield to keep the runners from advancing. The catch preserved the tie, and the Giants won the game on a home run by Dusty Rhodes in the 10th inning. When he was asked later about the catch, Mays famously replied, “I don’t rank ‘em, I just catch ‘em.” The Giants went on to sweep the 1954 World Series." - from the History channel

RED HAIR

18" x 24" Oil on canvas
“Her heavy peasant face was fringed by a bang of red hair like a woolen table-spread, a color at once strange and attractive, an obstinate color, a color that seemed to make Lena feel something alien and bad-tempered had settled over her forehead...”
― Djuna Barnes

SEEKER OF VISIONS

24" x 24" Acrylic on hardboard
August 1992 Private Collection

PORTRAIT OF WOMAN

 10" x 8 " Pencil on paper

DAD

18" x 24" Acrylic on canvas

Another portrait of my father in law from the early 1990's.

BOOTS

11 1/2" x 8 1/2" Fude brush, Faber-Castell big brush pens and china marker in Moleskine sketchbook

STUDY OF FREUD'S IRISHMAN

18" x 24"  Oil on canvas

PORTRAIT OF LUCIEN FREUD

18"x 24"oil on canvas

PORTRAIT OF SARAH BAKER

16" x 20"  Acrylic on canvass

EXPRESSIVE FIGURE STUDY

Studying with Bill Buchman. 11" x 14" Fude brush and watercolor in Strathmore sketchbook

LIVE MODEL FIGURE STUDY

                       19" x 25" Charcoal on paper

ART

ART  18" x 24"  Charcoal on paper

I've been going through some of my old drawings and paintings and came across this one of my father in law Art.  He is 84 years young and still going strong.  Those of you who know him know what I'm saying. The doctor just shakes his head in amazement when Art complains that he's getting old because he can't go full speed anymore, or "busheling", as he calls it.  I did this drawing back in the '90's and I think he still looks the same.

LIVE MODEL 1994

19"x 25" Pastel on paper.
More of the old work from our figure drawing group in North Bend, Oregon.

PORTRAIT OF LARRY WATSON

19" x 25" Charcoal on Strathmore paper
More early work from a live model session in 1994. Larry is an artist and was also the Director of the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, Oregon.

FIGURE DRAWING

19" x 25"  Charcoal on Strathmore paper

Early work from 1992 done at Peggy Oneal's studio in North Bend Oregon.  A group of us would meet once a week at Peggy's studio, chip in ten bucks for a model and really learn how to see and draw.

PORTRAIT OF DAVID HOCKNEY

18"x 24" Acrylic on canvass

Inspired by artist Linda Tennant I've decided to post some of my earlier work even though it may be chock full of honest mistakes.

BOBBY FISCHER GENIUS OR MADMAN?

24" x 36" Mixed media on Strathmore Bristol paper

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK

14" x 17" Ink and brush on Canson Bristol paper
" The scene at the outdoor chess tables in Washington Square Park was a melange of urban vitality and color. In contrast to the subdued, almost meditative pairings at the Brooklyn Chess Club, the park's contests were waged by a fast talking and disparate group of chess hustlers, Village bohemians, and tournament strength players who enjoyed competing in the open air, sometimes from sunup to sundown. Intriguingly, the chess tables crossed class barriers: One might find Wall Street bankers playing against homeless men from Skid Row, or Ivy Leaguers facing down high school dropouts. As for the park itself, it was an American version of a Middle Eastern bazaar, with folk singers, storytellers, beggars, political dissidents, soapbox orators, and even the occasional snake charmer. The "anything goes" atmosphere encouraged audacity and inventiveness." - ENDGAME by Dr. Frank Brady

I WANT A LAWYER

18" x 24" Acrylic, India ink, Fude brush and Faber-Castell big brush pens on Canson Bristol

STUDY OF PETTIBON JACKIE ROBINSON

18" x 24" Ink, Fude brush and Faber-Castell big brush on Canson Bristol paper

SAINT PETER IN A DREAM

 24" x 18" Acrylic on paper
I keep a dream journal and the other morning I woke up from a vivid dream of this guy who called himself Simon Peter. He spoke plainly in this dream and told me he and a bunch of other lazy bums were just laying around when they met God. "They call me a saint but I'm just a screw up, hell I even pulled a sword on someone." He caught me staring intently at his face in order to remember the details to paint him and he suddenly said "Look, a saint isn't some goody two shoes, a saint is someone who messes up but keeps on trying." Then I woke up.
Vincent van Gogh painted his dreams. If it's good enough for Vinnie, it's good enough for me. They called him crazy but they spend millions on his paintings!

EPIC COMB OVER

From sketchbook

EPIC COMB OVER WITH POEM

18" x 24" ink, Fude brush and Faber-Castell big brush pens on Canson Bristol paper

Hymn to the Comb-Over

BY WESLEY MCNAIR

How the thickest of them erupt just

above the ear, cresting in waves so stiff

no wind can move them. Let us praise them

in all of their varieties, some skinny

as the bands of headphones, some rising

from a part that extends halfway around

the head, others four or five strings

stretched so taut the scalp resembles

a musical instrument. Let us praise the sprays

that hold them, and the combs that coax

such abundance to the front of the head

in the mirror, the combers entirely forget

the back. And let us celebrate the combers,

who address the old sorrow of time’s passing

day after day, bringing out of the barrenness

of mid-life this ridiculous and wonderful

harvest, no wishful flag of hope, but, thick,

or thin, the flag itself, unfurled for us all

in subways, offices, and malls across America.

STUDY OF FRANK MILLER SIN CITY PANEL

24" x 18" Ink, Fude brush and acrylic on Canson Bristol paper

SELF PORTRAIT PUSHING WOOD

60" x 48" Oil on canvas

JULIE'S WHITE HORSE

36" x 24" Acrylic on paper

JULIE'S TIGER

40" x 30"  Acrylic on canvass

PORTRAIT OF JOYCE MACDOUGALD

10"x10" pencil and ink on Canson paper

BACK TO BASICS

 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"  Ink and Fude brush in Moleskine sketchbook

Just a little reminder that we all need these days.

BUDDHA NYC SUBWAY

36" x 24" Ink and Fude brush on MTA paper

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.