Holes in Memory

 

Charcoal and acrylic on wooden palette

18" x 12"

2009

Not for sale

This is a new piece, done as part of a fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Association.  It was auctioned off to raise money for the Memories in the Making art therapy program.  The theme of the piece is Alzheimer's Disease, and the word "memory" is repeated throughout the background.

Invisible Cities

 

Acrylic, gouache, and ink on canvas

12" x 15"

2009

$100

This piece is based on the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, which seems to be about the patterns that make a city.  I find the book very evocative, and plan to do a series of 55 works on it.  This is the pilot piece for the series, but I'm not sure the others will look anything like this...  

I'm fairly inexperienced working with acrylics and gouache (most of my up until now has been with oils), so this piece feels somewhat immature to me, though there are definitely parts of it that I like.  Working on this piece was enjoyable, since it was almost unconscious, stream-of-thought painting.  

Pieces of Pi

Oil, acrylic, charcoal, and Galkyd on canvas

12" x 12" (each)

2008

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This triptych shows fractions of pies over fractions of pi.  Or rather, fractions of 2*pi.  

The first piece is called "Pie for Three" and it shows 4*pi/3 written out in decimal form to about 35 digits in the background.  The pie is missing one third.

The second piece, "Pie," has 2*pi in approximate decimal form and shows a full pie.

The third piece, "Pie for 8," has pi/4 in approximate decimal form and shows an eighth of a pie.

Though it doesn't photograph well, each pie has a thick coating of dripped Galkyd over the red part, making it look like pie filling.

Portrait of a Friend

Mixed media on canvas

24" x 18"

2007

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This is a portrait of my good friend Megan.  I'm posting it now, because she just came out to visit me!

Beta Birds

Oil, acrylic, charcoal, and conte on canvas

24" x 30"

2008

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This piece substitutes birds on a wire for gammas and betas in an equation.

Mathematics of Aesthetics

Oil, acrylic, charcoal, conte, and ink on canvas

32" x 45"

2007

$200

There is an essay called "The Mathematics of Aesthetics" by George David Birkhoff.  The essay asserts that aesthetic mass is order over complexity, and that the  more aesthetic mass something has, the more beautiful it is.  This piece is a reaction to that formula, and actually to all formulas for what is beautiful and what isn't.  

When I first discovered the essay, I was determined to make a painting which maximized aesthetic mass according to the equation.  But when I thought about how to maximize order and minimize complexity visually, I ended up with an image that I found incredibly boring.  This piece shows the space that I was working in while studying the essay.  The blank book and the clean equations contrast with the disorder of the studio, but I think both look beautiful in their opposition.

A Pair of Pears in Peril

Acrylic, graphite, and collage on canvas

11" x 14"

2009

Not for sale

This is a piece done sheerly for the fun of it.  It is one of my first ventures into acrylic paints and smaller formats (which have become necessary since moving into a new, smaller space with no ventilation).  The wallpaper is a map of San Francisco, my new location.  I was looking at a lot of art by the comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz while painting this, and I think it shows in the color scheme and style.