120 Colors

During the spring testing of 2005 I drew this piece beginning with a grid. Using Prismacolor Sticks, I drew expressive lines across my grid. Then I added circles inside each box. I proceeded to blindly pick six colors at random as I filled in each box and the circles within. Filling out testing forms had inspired this part of my piece.


colored pencil on paper, 21" x 26.5"

After I rendering with the six colors, I again chose six random colors. When I reached the last of the 120 colors, I put the rest back in the box and picked at random again. This went on until I completed the piece.

From the outset I was determined to use all 120 colors that came in the Prismacolor box. So often artists are advised to only use a limited palette. Anyway it took a while to finish this drawing.

Sea Floor Rock

This piece was inspired by sites in Denver, Colorado.


acylic and molding paste on canvas, 20" x 20"

Petrified Rock

This piece was inspired by sites in Denver, Colorado.


acylic and molding paste on canvas, 20" x 20"

Red Rock

At a workshop I played around with molding paste on canvas. This is one of three pieces that I painted following the workshop. It was inspired by sites in Denver, Colorado. I wanted my students to see an example of using molding paste on canvas.


acylic and molding paste on canvas, 20" x 20"

Artroom

In college when I took the course Freehand II, there was a project we did that involved charcoal rubbings on tracing paper collaged with colored inks. Later on when I was teaching, I thought I’d experiment with the same method. I already had those supplies and I wanted to convince my students to work with mixed media. So I created this piece as a sample. Usually if the students saw me enjoy making a piece first it was an easier sales job to convince them.


mixed media, 11" x 15"

This time I used rice paper to make charcoal rubbings from objects and surfaces around the artroom. I then painted matte acrylic polymer to adhere the rubbings to watercolor paper. After the rubbings were dry, I spray fixed them. I then painted layers of color inks on top of them.

While digging through some boxes I found this piece. I think I will try to do some more works using these materials. It’s a direction that I really had not pursued.

Curls Gone Wild

My reason for creating this drawing was to show my students a finished color pencil piece. I wanted them to see what was possible when layering different colors of color pencil.


colored pencil on paper, 20.5" x 28"

Abloom

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Afire

This was my first attempt at a watercolor canvas painting. Although I didn't have my students working on this type of canvas, I had them see what is how different it is.


watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Purple Blend

Do you ever read the Sunday comics in full color? Did you realize you’re looking at pieces of the Sunday comics right now?

This collage is made up of pieces of the Sunday comics collected between September 2004 and March 2007. The only thing that they have in common are the colors. Speedball acrylic gloss is used to glue them down on Reeves BFK paper. I recently took a break from my dot artwork to complete this piece.


collage, 10.5" x 19"

So what made me create this work?

Well back in the summer of 1998 I took a trip to Chicago and saw the work of Ray Yoshida. He taught at the School of Art at the Institute of Chicago. I enjoyed the show so much I bought a catalog.

It wasn't until seven years later in March of 2005 that I got around to doing a piece in the spirit of the work I saw in Chicago. Cutting out the pieces from the Sunday funnies was very time consuming. I wanted my students to see how the context of the comics could be changed in a collage. It was a good way to show them how to use found materials.

We See

The materials for this collage were handed to me at a lecture on Hannah Hoch in Boston. It was one of many seminars I attended at a national art teachers convention in March 2005. The speaker asked 25 of us to make a collage out of the materials she put in a cellophane bag. She referred to it as a "Dada bag." When I returned home, I worked on this piece as an example for my talent art students. I wanted them to see how unusual materials could be used to make a collage.


collage, 17.5" x 24"

Reef Madness

This piece started with a demonstration I did for the Jefferson Art Guild. I poured paint as a start. After that I had to let the paint dry. It wasn't until days after that I went back into it.


acrylic on canvas, 24" x 30"

Pink Sensation

This one started as a demo for the West Bank Art Guild back in 1995. Mostly I used a stencil and sprayed acrylic with a toothbrush.


acrylic on canvas, 18" x 36"

Glow Worm

This painting started with a tennis ball rolling an orange acrylic path that proclaimed a glow worm. The texture came about from imprinting pine straw. The Metairie Art Guild was fascinated by the tricks I showed.


acrylic on canvas, 18" x 36"

Blame It on the Comet

This piece was painted around the time of the Hale-Bop Comet passed us in the 90s . . . members of a cult killed themselves in the belief that they would catch a ride on a spaceship traveling with the comet . . . The smear became the comet occurred at the demo I did for the West Bank Art Guild. It was a "happy accident."


acrylic on canvas, 18" x 36"