Here is my studio. I share it with David, who is a great and dear friend and amazing painter. We have a million lively conversations and he keeps me up-to-date on all things current. It probably looks a little depressing, but really it is a very clean and quiet spot that we bring a lot of noise to it on a daily basis. It is about 400 square feet, with a private entrance. The warehouse that it is in is huge, with about three full floors of artists. I'll try to get some photos of the entrance, which is at the end of a charming alley paved in broken glass, and a revolving display of tags (never park acar there or you may end up with some new paint). If you could jump right over the building you would come very close to the water. I love it. It is like another world. I think the neighborhood is South Park Slope(but it is way South)., but it depends on who you talk to. From the subway I walk through a very colorful and musical neighborhood (with lots of familia and currently my favorite dog at the car rim store who could eat me, but just looks at me every time I strut on by. We have a great relationship!), under a bridge, around some very permanent construction and right by a homeless guy, who I swear never really moves from under his blankets...The outside photos are through the window, where I can view the statue of liberty on a clear day. She so beautiful and green. For me it is magical because for such a huge landmark and symbol she is about the size of my pinky. The photos are terrible, but trust me, she is there, winking at me and David every day.

So here is a new drawing I have been working on. Yes, it is flowers. Since I have been seeing a lot of them lately, all over the place (especially when it is cold and stark you can't help to notice these bright gems everywhere). I wanted to start something fresh and new to me, get myself removed from being so personal about my work. I am not ashamed to say I wanted to do something completely mindess. Just keep my hands busy. But as things go, I started getting attached to these dying flowers...breathing my own life into them. I guess I couldn't leave the flowers be so beautiful, so I am sort of making them eat each other up and get mad and sad at each other. As I was working on some images, I started realizing that as they decayed, each flower in a bunch sort of gets its own personality. Some sad, some understanding and some just look like monsters. It is kind of like as they are dying and wilting, the real personality of the flower bubbles to the surface as it is gasping for one last breath. This is one drawing, photographed several times, but I am working on more. The images may not be the most decipherable, but maybe you get the idea. I tried to take some pictures, but ran out of batteries, took them upside down and I got my hand in the way a little. More to come I think...

Just read an interview with Steve McQueen, who won the Turner prize in 1999. He was asked what love feels like...he answered "for ever." Somehow that is just beautiful to me. I hate it in a good way (like you might secretly hate a fuzzy puppy for stealing all of the attention, even though you just want to hold it and play with it like all of the other people in the room) because it is so simple and just so so right. Maybe that is a working title to these three pieces (see the next two entries). He also says that his best kiss of his life was yesterday...that is churning in my head as well. Churning like thunder...(sorry to be melodramatic, but I couldn't resist). I have been trying hard to be tough for a long time, but I am such a sap and a sucker sometimes and I just can't resist that either. The other working titles have been some lyrics from some songs I have been listening too lately. I won't really repeat them here since they probably sound like shit compared to the bare, poetic, beautiful words I already mentioned here. But I have to remind myself now to lay off the hip-hop a bit and to start listening to some Christmround...
as music here and there. Also "pulling my face off" is another title I have been churning a

yeah! This is part of a triptych. Gross and fleshy and squishy...not sure if it is too much, but it is how I am feeling lately...

Black, metallic black!!!!

This might be the first time that I really noticed that a dark background really sets the figure off. An addiction is born...

These are a bit sad to me. Feeling blue...?

I am not sure why, but I have never really felt this one. Maye it needs more to it, like a visible antagonist. The idea is that she is mad...mad at something. And I wanted to leave it open to interpretation as much as possible. The piece was first shown at a solo show with about 23 more works. It really worked then. I would even go so far as to say it needed to be there. It is very energetic and is painted mostly with big brushes with very wide swaths of color color color...the piece is 48 inches by 72 inches, so it has a really huge presence. I would love to see it up somewhere where you could view it from a long way off...

This has to be one of the most unsettling pieces for me. I am so so happy about it. The composition and cropping /editting make it really odd...like it is maybe a bit off balance. I fell in love with the idea that it is like a teeter-totter pivoting up and down and the viewer (and maybe arist) are just sitting at that middle part that doesn't move (the fulcrum: holla for dictionaries!)with the ends. All I know is that if light hits it it glows like a mutha...!!!

This piece has been around for a bit. It is quiet and luring, but bright and sunshiny too. I, meaning "just me," love it. And I have loved it since I painted it.It is a super-private and intimate portrait, but still trying, but not achieving a sexiness. Bring the sexy back I guess, bring it back sucka!


Here is another that goes with it, but is way different. Those are my hands...man hands!!!Gross and great...!

all about drugs...addictions...seems way too easy. ...I call it "drug bunny" after a lemonheads song from a long time ago.

Back-to-back-makes-a-heart

Yes indeed...here's another oldy-goody. Some criticism (that I took to heart way too much) about this one is that it is too figurative. That is, it is just a figure study. I thought that was too true at first and that made me doubt my own feelings about this piece. Stripped away my confidence I guess. I wanted it to be vulnerable, but threatening too. Maybe a looming stare...after having it around the studio for quite a while I have stopped being shy about it. I like it a lot...I really enjoy the kind of strange, quiet intensity it posesses. The blue is super-intense and since the piece is over 6 feet tall, it has a real and dynamic presence to me...

An older image from about a year ago...It's approximately 72 inches long by 30 inches tall...You can't see it in the image very well, but the yellow streaks and strokes are gold paint, so it reflects and glows under light. Word to that!