Some recent art works

 

Sunday Morning

Jiving Johnny Copeland

Jazz Mon Amore

Penny's Midsummer Night's Dream

Victory formation

History repeats

 Can't wait to see Trump go to prison.

National Bird Night 1970

 

National Bird Night 1970 

(Acrylic, ink, and paper on 3x5' canvas)

The 1970's started off with a bang for me. We were living in the projects, that's council housing to my British friends, and poor as church mice. We got every scrap of welfare the Great Society provided, this was before massive tax cuts and right wing efforts to take welfare away from poor and working class people and give it to the rich white men in the form of corporate welfare and tax cuts. We were one of three white families in our neighborhood which was 'on the wrong side of the tracks' as the saying goes. 

The big greenish building represents the small apartment we lived in inside of the building. And when I say 'we,' I mean my mother, my mentally ill father, when he was well enough to come home, and my four siblings and I. It was a multi family building and from it we could see the big brick houses of the rich white people across the busy highway who they wanted nothing to do with poor people like us. The massive Roman Catholic church St. Monica's was also across the street. Mother took us to mass there and when we could escape the priests, we'd play football on the huge manicured lawn on the church grounds. The priests would shout at us and run us off.

The woman kissing the child in the bottom right corner represents my mom kissing my big sister, she was 9 yrs old, I was 8, Linda goodbye. We kids were going to the store to spend what little coins we managed to get from various places. The car on the left represents the car that would hit and kill my big sister as we tried to cross a busy car filled highway on our way to the little store where we bought penny candy, comic books, and cheap toys.

The girl under the street lamp represents all the girls I had crushes on and the bird looking up her dress is me, I got in to trouble for looking up a girl's dress in school. I was curious, I want to see what made them so different and alluring. The Vietnam war was raging and film of dead and wounded soldiers was on TV every night and the plane dropping the bomb represents Nixon's love of bombing and killing innocent people he didn't like. 

We had a playground behind our apartment building but all the action was playing in the street in front of our house. The kids playing on the old car on the left represents that. And the figures in the streets and in the windows represent all the neighbors who watched out for kids and for the cops, there was still left over tension from the 1967 riots and no one in our neighborhood trusted cops,

In 1970 I harbored dreams of becoming a baseball star for my hometown Detroit Tigers, so the numerals are outlined in their team colors. 

This is not a happy work since it deals with the death of my sister that I witnessed, but it is happy in that it represents the last day my mother was happy and before Linda's death crushed her and her spirit. The light behind her eyes went out and she was never the same after that day. But she carried on and did her best, she still had four kids and a husband to look after. 

New art from my National Bird Night 1970s series.

 One day I might explain the symbolism and context of these works, until then, read into them what ever you like. And if your jam is leaving hateful comments about other people's work, then know your comment will never see the light of day on this blog.

Salon Fresh

'Salon Fresh' 

(acrylic and paper on 24x48" wooden panel)

Work in progress

This one is called 'Southern Royalty.'

Work in progress

I'm busy helping take care of the old folks yet again this weekend, so I haven't had much time to work on this new work.  But I like the direction it's going.

Art in action

This painting is my favorite among the bigger scale works I've been doing recently.  I like it so much that I hung it in my home office so I can see it every day.

An alternate universe movie poster

My latest work

'All the options open to our little angel' 

(acrylic on 24x48" canvas)

Work in progress

'The photographer who was her own muse for years and years'

(acrylic on 24x48" canvas)

'The contortionist finds love'

(acrylic on 24x48" canvas)

My latest work on canvas.

A new work in progress

'The contortionist finds love'

Finished

'The strongman worked through his insecurities' 

(acrylic on 24x48" canvas) 

More progress

Looks so much better with only a partial face on his lower leg.  Lot more work to go, but I'm heading in the right direction.  This one really feels like me, like I'm finally free to do what I think is best and not be trapped by any negative thinking or trying to copy anyone else.

Work in progress

I like a lot of what I've done so far but the whole face on the bottom right might not survive the final cut.

Work in progress

She's an intergalactic assassin.  Still not done but lots of progress made.

It's that time of year

'Carnivale' 

(acrylic on 16x20" canvas)

A pair of recent works

'The couple and their cats'

'Something went wrong in Manitoba'

1-21-17

The resistance continues.