Since publishing the Veeptopus book a couple of years ago, I’ve been trying to figure what to do next . I probably could have spent a lifetime putting octopuses on top of things (authors, popes, vintage cars, the nation of Greenland) but creatively that felt like a dead end.
Instead, I’ve spent the past couple of years improving my technique skills while trying out media other than Veeptopus’s ink and watercolor. Lately, I’ve started working seriously in oil producing a series called BURNING.
Though my muse has been pulling me in a very different aesthetic direction from my past cephalopod-themed work, I feel like there’s an underlining connection between the two about the gap between the promise of America and its actual realities.
Inspired by vintage snapshots, these works all harken back to America’s “golden” age of the mid 20th century but seem to hint a catastrophe that lurks just beyond the frame.
On the Beach 24x18
At the end of this month, the work above along with a number of other paintings will be for sale at the JCO Art Haus’s The Very Very Rare Affordable Art Fair in Los Gatos. I am sincerely impressed with much of the work for sale at this event. If you find yourself in the Bay Area that weekend, please check it out.
And I still have a few Veeptopus books lying around, if you need an unusual Mother’s Day gift.
