Brick

This arrangement was inspired by promises made to the hungry, the kind of promises politicians make to get votes. If you vote for me I’ll bring back your jobs and roll back all of your taxes and make all education free for your children. Promises that cannot be fulfilled.
The hungry do as they’re told for the promise of a better life but are left no better than they were. Read more

The Door Stop

Oil on Canvas | 24″ x 24″ | 2017 I live in a very old house with very crooked floors and hardly a door that stays shut without a heavy door stop to keep it from falling open whenever a mouse runs by and the floorboards creak and groan under its feet.Read more

American Icon

This is an unfinished painting. A black child (my son, Axel) is lying on a large American flag, clutching a toy Superman. The child is naked, a symbol of innocence and vulnerability. Superman is what he must become to be accorded the same dignity promised by the flag. Today he lies naked on it. I hope that tomorrow the flag will cradle him as its own child. I began this painting a few days ago — much too late — and haveRead more

Axel with His Mother’s Viola

Oil on Canvas | 34″ x 40″ | 2016 I began this composition on the day my son discovered his mother’s viola case buried behind canvases in my studio. He became fascinated with it, quickly discarding his toys to spend nearly an hour playing for his parents. We had been reading Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin, so music was very much a thing of much interest around the house. The toy car at bottom-left is missing its left-front wheel, a prop IRead more

A Staircase, Agadez

  Well-worn steps pour out of an open doorway of a red mud and plaster house in Agadez, Niger. I made a sketch for this picture in 2001 but just painted it — for want of a simple thing to do while I waited for something else to dry enough to continue. I had gone to Agadez, a market town and jumping off point for Sahara expeditions and migrants on their way to Libya and beyond, to study the way ofRead more

Studio

Still setting up new studio. It’s been a frustratingly slow process but I think I’m almost there. I hate a messy workshop. One benefit of this new place is that it has forced me to dig out old paintings I never finished, some started as far back as 20 years ago. That will be a focus in the next few months, trying to complete as many of them as I can bear, while of course working on new compositions. I’mRead more

New Studio and New Website

  After three years of feeling lost, I’ve moved into a new and spacious studio from a severely crammed one. I feel a renewed sense of purpose and have decided to celebrate this new awakening with carrot cake and a new website. There’s still a bit of work remaining before I can fully move in — like insulation and drywall and painting. Then I’ll move in and add baseboards and doors on the closets and a rack for holding canvases andRead more