I just finished painting Abbie Hoffman’s portrait as I am writing this. I was surprised by the conversation I had with him during the process. I had four encounters with him in real life. The first was in April 1970 on the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. It was either a moratorium against the war in Vietnam or it was Earth Week. I was there with nine other students from my enriched geometry class to be part of a jury for seniors in the Law School. Abbie was on the steps of a building across the square hollering through a megaphone.
The last time I saw him, he was going by the name Barry Freed. It was 1982 or ‘83. (This is where I go on a rabbit trail to explain how I keep track of things like that.) I was hitchhiking, because we did not have a car. Our 1959 Pontiac threw a rod going up the hill on Rte. 562 on the way to see our midwife.
The encounters I had with Abbie Hoffman were random and infrequent, but he somehow left his mark on my soul. Maybe we connected because we shared mental illnesses: severe depressive disorder and bipolar. Most days he knew how to make the best of it. He brought humor to the revolution.
The day he took his own life, I knew something was wrong with him. I felt an urge to go to New Hope and find him. I had no idea where in New Hope he lived. I just knew something was terribly wrong. I also knew there was nothing I could do to help. It was April 12, 1989. He had taken 150 phenobarbital, “enough to kill 15 men” according to Rolling Stone.
I don’t know how or why I sometimes know this stuff. I just do. Years ago, I told my therapist I woke up at 3 am crying for Pretoria, South Africa. I turned on my computer and found out there was a major disaster there. It was her last week before retiring. She said that I was different from all her other clients. So many were upset that their canned goods weren’t in alphabetical order, but I was depressed over real problems, so don’t I feel better now?
I told her, No, and that I was glad she was retiring. I can be harsh. At least it takes out the guess work of where you stand with me.
Abbie was a leader in the peace movement against the war in Vietnam, and an environmental activist against nuclear power and nuclear weapons. He did this work with style and humor. He wrote a book entitled “Steal This Book.” It did not make him or his publisher much money. Too many readers took the title seriously. He co-founded the Youth International Party (“Yippies”) and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of the Flower Power movement.
The painting is Black & White acrylic on 20″ x 20″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted gray, titled and signed in white.
Price: $200 plus postage
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This post reads chronologically in reverse. That is to say, the most recent developments on my El Duende project are at the top of the post and where I started is at the bottom. Enjoy!
Completion (maybe) (3/2624): “Gold Wings”
It was hung on the wall in our room with the other group members work. Mine proved too heavy for the Command Strips, so it fell. Rocky and several other pieces fell off. I took it home and repaired it. Then I applied gold leaf to Ifrid’s wings. I was truly winging it. I applied it using white paint as adhesive on the wing on the right and then I watched a Youtube tutorial on how to gold leaf. I did it over along with the left wing, a bit better, still not fully following recommended procedure. I don’t have all of the tools, or the correct adhesive, but it’s pretty.
Week Eight (2/22/24): “Cranford’s Horde”
As it turns out, this was our last week in this experiment in the group. We can choose to continue, if we wish to, on our own. I feel like I may have finished it today. I added a several more of my antique, political buttons, which I had been hording for over half a century. I scattered more of them among my classmates, as well. I scattered more of Ifrits’s jewels all over the canvas. I added some silver and gold squiggles to her wings and various colored lines to her scales, as signs of wear and tear from guarding her horde.
I have learned tht I have been a dragon, hording useless trinkets and shiny things. As we have downsized from larger living spaces to smaller, we have lightened up and simplified, but I still have much more to get rid of. Let’s see where this journey takes me.
I don’t think Ifrit & Rocky are finished with me yet.
Week Seven (2/15/24): “Ifrit & Rocky”
Each week, the work is given a different name, as it changes. This week, before I went to art therapy, I asked my grandchildren to suggest names for the dragon. Jacob suggested Ifrit from German mythology. The squirrel had been named Rocky by me almost eight years ago, when I received him as a gift when I was recovering from open heart surgery.
This week I used tempera sticks to add rainbow colors in six textured stripes arranged from top to bottom: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. I a painted blue wavy line across and one up the canvas. I painted a couple of random, orange, wavy lines, and a red, wavy line. One of the orange lines is a bit jagged. I added more antique, pinback buttons from my horde, including my first SEIU pin from 1975 and one of Emil’s union pins from 1933.
Week Six (2/8/24): “Dragon Scales”
This week, I did not rotate the canvas, since that would cause the dragon to lose too many jewels, and to take a nosedive. I used hot glue to affix the dragon’s scales, which are DVDs which I had cut in thirds. I cut a couple of the thirds in half again. I melted four black, plastic spoons enough to bend them for legs and tucked them under the scales. I added a few random jewels and pinback buttons and tore up some cotton balls and glued them to the canvas representing pinkish smoke billowing up above Ifrit’s nostrils.
The squirrel died. He no longer speaks when you squeeze him. I think Rocky was 8 years old, after all.
Week Five (2/1/24): “Dragon”
As usual, I started by rotating the canvas a quarter turn, on the obverse side. I glued various “jewels” roughly across the middle of the square, horizontally. They are plastic, clear and several colors, using Mod-Podge. I glued metallic, gold, lacy fabric across, loosely, on top of the jewels as the start of an abstract dragon. I pinned Grandpa Emil Haapaa’s Mpls. Chauffeur’s License (expiration 1955) pinback button on the face of the dragon as its eye. I used the pin from another larger button to attach a stuffed squirrel, that I had received when I was recuperating from open heart surgery in 2016. He chirps when you squeeze him. Rocky is sitting on the neck of the dragon as pilot. I stapled a few silver fabric “blossoms” around the edge of the canvas and added a few more random pinback buttons from my collection. I’m collecting obsolete CDs & DVDs and cutting them into thirds to glue between the layers of the gold fabric for the dragon’s scales, next Thursday.
There is much more to the story of Grandpa Emil. He was not my grandpa, but he was a dear friend, and played a key part in my formation.
Week Four (1/25/24): “Chatter, chatter,chatter, chatter.”
This week, I painted on the back of the canvas. There are few rules in El Duende, since the end game is to lose control. Being an artist, my apartment’s walls are covered with paintings by me, and by others. Then there is the TV screen that talks to us and spews incessant text; and the laptop screens; and the stupid-phone screens: “chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter. Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter.” Text, type, code, words, screens, decor, cluttering our eye-space and minds. We see it all of the time. What do we perceive?
I rotated the canvas before I did anything to the obverse or the reverse side. The first thing you may notice is the larger patches of blue. I adhered shiny, rather sheer fabric pieces of random shape to the canvas and varnished over them. I added a couple of patches of red paint and re-coated the inside of the oyster tin with a fresh coat of cerulean blue. Then I affixed some old, political pinback buttons from the 1950s and 1970s, as well as some supporting social and environmental concerns. from my collection. I have hundreds of them. I gave a friend in the room my “Jesus Loves Gays” button. One of the buttons says “”L.R.Y.” I have never known where that came from or what it means.
Meaningless chatter? Are we starting to lose control?
Week Three (1/18/24): “Quilt Deconstructed”
On the third Thursday, I gave the canvas another clockwise quarter turn. I also measured it. It is 40″ x 40″. I had incorrectly reported it as being 4′ x 4′ on Week One. I continued with the theme of found objects. I chose a floral fabric, a rainbow stripe fabric, and a silver lemay fabric from Bethann’s quilting stash. I also raided our therapist’s faux fur and felt box for a piece of red felt and a few pieces of off-white ‘fur’. On some of the fabrics, I traced shapes of a vodka bottle (which we now use for our olive oil), a hand sanitizer bottle, our screen cleaner kit, a decagonal jelly jar, and another, simple round jar. More of the fabric I cut into triangles.
I used water based varnish and painted it where I wanted to place the fabric patches, then pressed them into it, then varnished over them; with the exception of the furs, the felt and the lemay.
I still don’t know where this is going. It is the most exciting project to date in art therapy.
Week Two (1/11/24): “Found Objects”
This week, I traced more found objects: a roughly triangular shaped, vodka bottle, a smoked oyster tin, a soda bottle cap, foam stuffing out of a new shoe, a needle-nosed pliers, and a butane lighter. I cemented some of the items to the canvas, as well as the gasket that I used to paint the smaller dot last week. I also rotated the canvas.
Week One (1/4/24): “Wonder Dots”
I am currently enrolled in an art therapy group at Penn Foundation. We meet for three hours, once a week, on Thursdays. For January, we are each creating an El Duende. If you followed that link, you realize that this is not a simple concept. It is art that is out of control, like the Flamenco is dance that is passionate dance out of control. Above is my first week’s work, before I hardly knew what El Duende meant. I still am learning. Our therapist will not allow us to take our work home, so we only have three hours each week to work on it. Not hardly enough. I started with a 4′ x 4′ canvas, which was a used drop-cloth I stretched on bars and primed with scraps of various shades of yellow paint. The small dots were painted inside a gasket I found on the sidewalk on the way to the car on my way to class that morning. The larger circles were traced around the top and bottom of a paper cup from the water fountain in the hallway outside of class. I am painting with white, red, yellow, blue, and orange acrylics. I will try to update this post weekly until this project is done.
It remains to be seen whether or not it will be for sale or will be worth buying.
I have found that when I get stuck for very long in my painting, it often helps me to get unstuck for me to paint a new style of self- portrait. So, yesterday, I painted this little doodle: sort of a combination abstract and pointilist self-portrait, with lipstick and glasses.
It is on a 12″ diameter stretched canvas. If you really want it, talk to me. we can haggle. Therapy not included.
When I get stuck in my painting, I eventually figure out that I need to go back to where I started and paint a self-portrait. I believe this is my ninth. Each one is a different style or approach. I realized as I was planning this one that Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh each did 35 or 36 self-portraits. Self-portraits are liberating. There is no customer who needs to be satisfied or who is going to judge it. The pressure is off.
That is the color of my hair, this week. And, it is cut and combed in a Mohawk. I’m wearing black, so I’m wearing pearls like the ladies on Facebook told me I should.
This painting is acrylic on veneer on an 18″ diameter particle board with a rope loop to hang it.
Tony asked me to paint all of my sneakers, most of which he bought me, on the large canvas I had purchased to replace my Spiderwort painting on the wall above our television. I painted them life sized. During the course of painting it I bought two more pairs of sneakers. They won’t fit on this canvas. The right, blue Fila has the size 12 sticker on the painting that came with it, on the same spot as it was.
It is acrylic on 40″ x 30″ stretched canvas.
Price: $400
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I met David when he worked with my dear friend Tony at Goodwill in Montgomeryville, PA. His partner, Carla, and my wife, Bethann, work there, as well. David was a character, and would often wear American kilts to work. He had a collection of interesting hats, too. He called this one his “polyester roadkill hat,” as it was flamboyantly constructed of fake fur.
David’s obituary can be found here. I painted this portrait in tribute to David and Carla’s love, as a gift to Carla. It hangs at a 20 degree slant. It is painted with acrylic on 20″ x 20″ stretched canvas. He was a fellow artist.
We don’t know what breed or breeds of dog Meega is. She looks like a Golden Lab. She is a mid-sized dog. I have never seen a dog with more energy. The fence between her yard and ours is a mere suggestion. She runs under it, if she sees any of us in the yard or pulling up in the parking area. She is constantly jumping in the air to get at eye level with any human visitors. This is a painting of her standing up to look out Pete’s kitchen window, because she heard our screen door open. She is wiggling in anticipation that I am coming over to play.
I watch Meega and her ‘brother’, Easy, while Pete is at work. This painting is acrylic on 20″ x 10″ stretched canvas. It was a gift to Pete.
Easy is the Mastiff cross that lives next door. He was a stray that had been abandoned in the Philadelphia neighborhood where our neighbor, Pete, used to live. He was skin and bones. He apparently had been left out in the weather or tormented with water. He will not go near water and I cannot get him to go outside if he so much as smells a hint of rain in the air. I watch Easy and his ‘sister’ Meega, another stray that Pete adopted, when he is at work.
I painted this as a gift to Pete. It is acrylic on a 16″ diameter stretched canvas. I framed it using the outer rings of two 8″ diameter embroidery hoops.
I DuckDuckGoed “Beautiful Arabic Men” and the first several images that came up were men in burquas with just their eyes showing. I blended a couple of those photos and started to paint. This photo on-line does not do justice to this painting. It is acrylic on 36″ x 36″ stretched canvas.
It does not require framing. It is $350 plus postage. We take Paypal so all credit cards or debit cards are accepted. Email me with your Name, Address and Phone number so we can get the process started.
Our grandsons attempted to adopt a black, female kitten. They already had Fezzik, named after a pirate, so in keeping with the theme, they named this tiny kitten after a pirate ship. Fezzik would not tolerate her presence in the house, however. So my daughter found another family to adopt Black Pearl.
The painting is acrylic on 20″ x 20″ stretched canvas.
Price: $100 plus postage
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I suffer from severe depressive disorder, bipolar 1, bipolar 2, and complex PTSD, as well as the after effects of six strokes, 50 TIAs, and a seizure or two. The COVID quarantine did not help matters. I, like several of my artist friends, found myself severely blocked. During a time, when one would think we could be free from social distractions to spend more time producing art, instead, almost nothing.
An artist friend in Georgia proposed an exchange. She asked me to paint Hollyhocks and mail it to her. In exchange, she would send me one of her paintings. We did not discuss what she would paint for me.
This painting is on a piece of canvas drop-cloth that I stretched on 11″ x 36″ bars. I had attempted to paint three other paintings on this canvas over the last year. Since this is only one plant, I hope she won’t be disappointed. Technically, it is not “hollyhocks”, but just a lonely hollyhock.
She is very pleased with it! Her name is Suzane Jordan Carty. She painted a lovely 8″ x 10″ abstract painting and a ~3″paper mache’ nest with three small paper mache’ eggs. They are faintly iridescent.
I recently bought these glasses from GlassesUSA.com. I have become sensitive to light, both during the day, and to headlights at night. I was able to specify gradient lenses 80% to 30% top to bottom on my progressive lenses.
I have been blocked in my painting for the last few months. I finally realized that every other time when I have been blocked and could not figure out what to paint, I have painted a self-portrait. Three of them have been ‘normal’.
This painting is acrylic on 20″ x 10″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted black, and it is titled, dated, and signed on the bottom, so no framing is needed.
Price: $50 plus postage
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Attached is the PDF of our newsletter for you to view or download. Just click the image below. We don’t have many of our friends’ addresses. Plus, we are so late getting this out, with the way mail is moving… Also, quite frankly, we aren’t exactly made of money. Happy Holidays!
Sometimes my cat, Skittles, dreams. I can tell, because his paws are moving in order as if he were running. All cats have some things in common. It seems, all cats, even lions, tigers panthers, and jaguars, will squeeze themselves into any cardboard box that they can find. I imagine that when Skittles is dreaming, he visualizes himself to be a huge lion hunting with his pride!
Lions used to be wide ranging and plentiful in Africa, Asia, and India. Now, they are endangered, with possibly only 400 left in “the wild”. August 10 is set aside as International Lion Day.
This painting was painted with acrylic on coarse canvas, hand-stretched on 30″ x 30″ bars. I primed it, then painted it bright yellow. The only obviously yellow on the painting is on the inscription and the edges, however tiny specks show through, due to the roughness of the canvas, giving it a “sub-conscious” brightness or happiness.
This is a painting of what they call “Yellow Poppies”. I guess it is because some of them are yellow and their centers are yellow, not black. The petals range from orangey red to pale yellow. I painted it on five canvasses: four 10″ x 20″ arranged in leftward pinwheel around a 6″ square. They are to be hung with 2″ spaces between them, which makes this piece 32″ x 32″ overall.
Price: $100 plus postage
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The happy, young lady portrayed here was just 24 and actively exercising her human right of free speech on the 4th of July on a closed and barricaded stretch of freeway, when she was run over and killed by a 27 year old man in a white Jaguar, who entered the roadway by going the wrong way down an exit ramp. This is what a friend of hers posted on social media the next day.
The driver has been charged. Another young woman was left in critical condition with multiple injuries, as well.
This painting is acrylic on 24″ x 24″ gallery wrapped, stretched canvas. The edges are painted red, and it is titled, dated, and signed on the bottom, so no framing is needed.
Price: $200 plus postage
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It is cliche’ to say that John Prine (October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an “American treasure”. I regard him as a treasure to humanity. He would reject all of these special accolades and just say he was trying to do his best to be human. That’s what made him so wonderful. We have lost him, along with a myriad of other, wonderful and talented people, to COVID-19, so far, in 2020. His last song was “I Remember Everything.” It was recorded from quarantine.
John Prine was a champion for social justice, equality, and tolerance. He managed to do this with a sense of humour; never letting any bitterness or resentment show. He survived throat cancer and had to learn how to sing (an octave lower) all over again, and kept on going!
When I heard the song above on WXPN, the other morning, I sat in the driveway and wept for the loss we had experienced as a people, a nation, and a world. Rest in power, John Prine!
The painting is black and white acrylic on 24′ X 24′” gallery wrapped canvas. The edges are painted red, so no framing is needed. I signed and dated it on the bottom edge, so as to not interfere with the portrait.
This painting is an extreme close-up of a small Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) blossom. It is one of 75 species in the Spiderwort genus. It is native to the East coast of the US. It is a beautiful, and easy to grow and maintain addition to just about any garden in Pennsylvania. The bees and butterflies will thank you for it. I painted this on four 14″ x 14″ panels with 2″ gaps. Perhaps it mimics the effect of viewing the blossom through the window of a tiny dollhouse.
The painting comes with Command strips affixed and instructions for hanging.
When Dave was 20 and Betty was 25, sometime in 1944, David Reber asked Betty Michael to marry him. She said yes. They were married in February of 1945. This painting is based on the photo Dave’s mom and dad, Ruth and Ferdinand, took of them in their living room, to mark their engagement. They had three daughters: Susan, Bethann, and Meg (short for Margaret). Bethann is my wife. I could write a book about these people, but they have always been rather private. I will say this. They were the absolute best grandparents we could have hoped for for our girls. Betty had been disabled by a severe stroke when Bethann and Meg were still in grade school, and Susan took over the household chores and a lot of looking after them. But Betty always had a listening ear and a fun song at the ready. She was the youngest sister to five older brothers and a sister, in a Welsh, steel mill family. Some of the songs she knew were drinking songs that were rather mischievous. Dave & Susan raised goats and chickens, and all kinds of vegetables on their 2-1/2 acre lot, to provide them and us with wonderful food! Our girls got to learn all about gardening and processing food. We all have memories of shelling peas with Betty. It is hard to say just a little.
David & Betty were not perfect. Nobody is. But I so admired Dave for how he never, ever considered leaving. He worked hard. He was thrifty. He and I did things to cars together that were well beyond our skill levels. We learned. Sometimes we learned to hire professionals. But I can say I have rebuilt a car engine in a freezing cold barn and heard a Baptist deacon swear in ways that I have never heard any other man swear. Good times!
They were good, loving, faithful, and honorable people. We miss them.
This painting is acrylic on 16″ x 20″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted black, so framing is not necessary.
Price: $150 plus postage.
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This is Michelangelo’s David after a few months of letting himself go during the COVID-19 lock down. With no one to impress, and no gym to attend, and plenty of beer to drink and TV to watch, well, nature takes its course. Later, this summer, when the lock down is relaxed, he hits the beach, big and bold! Of course, he is still wearing masks, so as not to accidentally share any bodily fluids and spread disease.
This painting is acrylic on 12″ x 24″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted yellow, so framing is not necessary.
Price: $100 plus postage.
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We have known Leticia since she was a little girl. Her family and our family went to Finland Mennonite Church when our girls were little, too, in the 1980s. Her parents, Jim & Judy, had two sons by birth, then took in numerous foster children, several of which they adopted. Some of them were born addicted. Others had mental or physical disabilities. Judy struggled with bipolar disorder. I am sure it was not an easy household to grow up in.
Leticia is married and they have fully grown children of their own. She has asked me on two occasions if I would paint her portrait. She is so pleased with it that it will be joining her personal collection this week.
This painting is acrylic on 14″ x 14″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted blue, so framing is optional.
Price: $100 plus postage. Proceeds will service our sewing machines which need it after making thousands of face masks to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Many people consider wild violets to be a weed. We enjoy them and plant them! They are wonderful, native perennials that provide sustenance from early spring through fall to bees, rabbits, and other insects and small animals that are essential to a healthy ecosystem. Plus, they add delightful spots of color and bits of softness to a lawn. These tiny blossoms are scattered all across the back yard of the house in Perkasie where we rent an apartment. Each bloom is less than an inch across, so this painting is an enlarged view.
This painting is acrylic on 14″ x 14″ stretched canvas. The edges are painted purple, so framing is optional.
This is a painting of a ruffled pink daylily from our yard on Front St., Souderton. It is painted in black and white on a 24″ x 24″ gallery wrapped canvas. The edges are painted charcoal gray. The title, date and signature are on the edge, giving the flower a stark, uncluttered look.
Price: $200 plus postage.
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Most of the artists I know took lessons, or went to school to become artists. I did not. Some would say that it shows. Oh well. Many have remarked that my collection of works is diverse; not confined to any one style. I have mentioned that I stumbled upon monochromatic painting by doing two pieces in two days, then discovering what the term ‘monochromatic painting‘ meant.
Classically, artists would start drawing, sketching, shading, objects, then move on to painting still life. These are arrangements of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and some household objects. The idea is that one learns about perspective, light and shadow, texture, etc., before moving on to more complex subjects. One learns how to keep the rules of realism, before one breaks them for abstract art or cartoons. I started with a cartoonish self-portrait, and went on from there. I started late, so had to make up for lost time. Many people, who know some of the subjects of my portraits, have told me that I have really captured their essence. I don’t always hit it out of the park. I have canvasses I am painting over. Yet, my works have been used in several lecture series & plays at several universities around the US. Some of them are hanging on walls across the Atlantic. They can be seen in homes or dorm rooms in seven or eight states. People tell me they like the bird mural.
I call this painting “Still Life” because it was an exercise for me in emulating a couple of artists’ styles; not slavishly, but paying homage nonetheless. The bright, fall colors on the hill behind the Mexican Gray Wolves and in the turning leaves of the tree are a nod to Vincent Van Gogh’s post-pointilism. More subtle yet, there are scribble lines through two thirds of the painting that pay tribute to Jackson Pollock.
The title is also a play on words, of sorts. This family of wolves are on a wolf reserve for endangered species and breeds of wolves. They still have life, thanks to some extraordinary measures taken to save them. A photo of them went viral on the web. That photo is the basis of the composition of this painting. When this painting sells, a portion of the sale will go to the Wolf Conservation Center.
The painting is acrylic on 24″ x 24″ gallery stretched canvas with edges painted black, so framing is not required.
Price: $240 plus postage
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Their mom had her phone out ready to take a picture. They came in close, hollering and laughing. Our granddaughters were 8 and 7 when the picture that this painting is based on was taken.
Painting is black and white acrylic on 24″ x 24″ gallery stretched canvas. The edge is painted black, so no frame is required.
Price: $200 plus postage
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Mike is a good friend. He has helped our family countless times. He has taken me to the Emergency Room more than once. We have many times regretted our decision to buy the house on Front St., Sonderton, from a financial standpoint. But, on balance, we feel the move enriched our lives for having met Mike.
I will write more later.
This painting is acrylic on 24″ x 24″ gallery stretched canvas.
Price: $150 plus postage
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Ernesto Che Guevara was born on June 14, 1928. (My birthday in June 14, 1955.) His early life is documented in the book and movie: The Motorcycle Diaries, about his travels from one end of South America to the other on a motorcycle. This trip was formative in his education as a revolutionary. He became a medical doctor first. In 1955, Fidel Castro’s brother Raul introduced them, and he joined the revolution in Cuba. On June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March. After he witnessed what Dulles’ CIA did to dismantle the popularly elected socialist governments of Guatemala and Honduras, he persuaded Harvard educated Fidel Castro that he would need to maintain a benign dictatorship to resist the dirty tricks and subversion of the American government with their interference in other nations’ elections.Perhaps our chickens are coming home to roost.
In 1965, then he joined the revolution in Kinshasa, Congo. In 1966, he joined the revolution in Bolivia. He was captured by the CIA on October 8, 1967, and summarily executed the next day. So much for human rights and due process and The Geneva Convention.
Che was a passionate man. He was in the fight for love of the people, not for personal gain or some dogmatic or idealized view of proving a point. I am sick to death of the communist, socialist and anarchist groups in the US who are full of history nerds and armchair philosophers who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves. Che gave his life in service to nations. Because of what he did, thousands, perhaps millions of people were given a shot at life who otherwise would not have done.
“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.”
“Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” – both by El Che
There was nothing ridiculous about Che’s love for the common people and his passionate struggle to liberate them.
Painting is 24″ x 18″ acrylic on stretched canvas.
Price: $150 plus postage
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The foliage is made to look like metal work, much like the Mayans and Incans did. I twisted parts of the petals, then blew a digital breeze across them with such force that at places individual pixels came loose. The frame is made from four heavy pieces of poplar, that are actually joined in the traditional fashion in angled corners. I shaped them to evoke interlocking peace pipes and carefully used dark walnut stain in a gradient to separate the pipes visually.
The overall message of the piece is about how digital technology even with all of its networking and social media still seems to leave us alone and separated. We need to engage in more natural, primitive social contact in order to maintain emotional and psychological health and happiness: The Tribal Dance.
Image is museum quality printed on canvas which is stretched on a 25″ x 25″ custom frame. The overall dimensions of the piece are 31-1/2″ x 31-1/2″ x 2″.
Price: $500 plus shipping
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When I get stuck in my art, I go back to the beginning. The beginning was a self-portrait. I am beginning to understand why Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh painted so many self-portraits. Not that I dare compare myself to them; well, not yet, anyway. This is only my sixth self-portrait. Ask me if and when I finish my 36th self-portrait. They are a great exercise. One knows what one looks like and what one is feeling. You can experiment with your own likeness and not worry about anyone getting offended by or being disappointed with the result. The pressure is off.
For this portrait, I recycled a painting I had done for Perkasie Fun-A-Day 2017. It was Hope #22 Fun. I turned it sideways and painted my likeness over it, based on a snapshot that Bethann had taken of me in August. I had a bit of a sunburn. I was wearing my Menlo Aquatic Center tag as an earring, along with a green rabies tag earring that Hilary had made me, both in my left ear. At the beginning of the summer, I lost the rabies tag earring in the pool. At the end of the season, I lost my pool tag in the pool, after going down the twisty water slide. The guards found my rabies tag earring. The pool tag was lost, but everyone knew me and we only had four days left in the season. So it was not an issue.
This painting is acrylic on 20″ x 16″ stretched canvas.
Price: $150 plus postage
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This started out as a pair of Miss Jessie daylily blossoms blooming next to our driveway. I photographed them, then tweaked the photo in Photoshop. Then I mirrored the image and inverted the colours. After that, I arranged them checkerboard fashion and added two green borders. This was then museum quality printed on canvas. which I stretched over a handcrafted frame. I made a sleek, modern frame of poplar and coated it with multiple layers of black lacquer, then varnish. This is my favourite daylily! If you look closely, you can even see a tiny insect on one of the petals.
It is named for Andy Warhol, as it is an homage to his Marilyn Monroe serigraphs and Campbell Soup Cans. I never appreciated them from seeing them in books and magazines. I saw them in person at a museum on the University of Minnesota campus around 1990. they were breathtaking, in person! This is why my website is named what it is! Art IS always better in person. Buy some. Take it home.
Overall dimensions are 26″ x 26″ x 2″.
Price: $350reduced to $150 plus postage
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I spent close to 40 hours preparing and painting, and over three months pondering how to complete, a 3′ x 4′ work based on the photo of a floating market in Indonesia. It is a fantastic photo, apparently taken from a bridge, of women in longboats full of fruits, vegetables and grains on a muddy river. I wanted to somehow convey the path of some of this produce from this market, through various other markets, finally ending up in a supermarket basket, all in the framework of these boats.
I still think it is an interesting concept, but can I make it beautiful? What Bucky Fuller said kept haunting me:
“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I’ve finished, if the solution isn’t beautiful, I know it’s wrong.”
Of course, I was thinking about beauty.
So, today, I painted over all of the boats and the few women and the few bunches of bananas and baskets of fruit I had painted. It was the emotional equivalent of a writer shredding the first 50 pages of the next, great American novel.
I have another idea for the canvas. Hopefully, you will see it posted here in less than four months.
Update, 10/14/2019: I finished the new painting on this canvas over the weekend. It took me over a week to do. I just finished it with an intense session out in the public at the Franconia fall Fest of Saturday and the early Sunday mornig before returning to show it there. Here is the result.
I dedicated my mural to the 20th century artist Edward Hopper and to the rabbit who lived under the shed, whom I named after him. These portraits were painted (and photographed) in very close quarters. I think the retaining wall was less than two feet from the wall of the house at this point. Edward Hopper, the artist, is my favorite artist of the 20th century. His most famous painting is probably Nighthawks, seen below. Click on it to read a bit more about him.
The rabbit, Edward hopper, was bold. They came very close and did not mind me talking to them. I really don’t know if it was a male or female; or even if it was more than one and I only saw one at a time, and they all had identical markings. But they were nice to have around as I was painting.
If you see a live American Flamingo (phoenicopterus ruber) in Perkasie, call a zoo. In fact, most of the live flamingos in the US are either in zoos or escaped from them. The only pink Flamingos native to the area are the plastic variety. I included this plastic, pink Flamingo because our nextdoor neighbors (who provided the green and gray paints for the wall) requested a pink Flamingo. Painting the lawn ornament variety was the only way I felt I could include it in a “Birds of Perkasie” mural in good conscience. Plastic Flamingos are still regularly spotted in the Perkasie area. It was originally designed by Don Featherstone of Union Products in 1957. He won a Nobel Prize in Art for this in 1996, since it had become such a pop icon. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel, he said that he had been frustrated for years trying to sell fine art, so he decided to give people what they wanted with the plastic Flamingo: junk art. It was the biggest selling lawn ornament for decades. Now, it is being rivaled, but not replaced by the Garden Gnome.
Despite its name the Canada Goose (branta canadensis) is also native to the US. Animals and plants are often named after the location of the person who first takes the effort to scientifically classify them. For example, we have a Virginia Rose in our yard that was present in the wild in Pennsylvania before there was a Pennsylvania. I’m explaining this, because of the current, nativist culture in much of the US. It’s also good to remember that the first European language to be spoken in what was later to be the United States was Spanish. In Delaware “The First State”, the language spoken in the first European settlement was Swedish.
So when Canada Geese become pests in the parks, don’t blame Canada. They did over-populate Lake Lenape at some point and Perkasie imported Swans to cull their population. The problem was, swans are costly and they apparently got poached. There are several sites on the web which sell plastic or styrofoam swan decoys to scare geese away. But it is important to remember that they were here first. Canada Geese reside in the area year round, although it may not be the same Geese. In the winter, many of the Geese which summer in Canada migrate south. Many of the Geese which summer here migrate further south to the Carolinas and Florida.
The American Tree Sparrow (spizelloides arborea) is native to North America, but it is not particularly associated with trees. It is the northernmost bird on the mural, even nesting on the arctic tundra, above the tree line. It winters in the northern half of the lower 48 states, excluding the west coast. In the winter, it eats mostly seeds and berries. In the summer, it eats mostly insects. It travels and nests in flocks.
The Eastern Bluebird (sialia sialis) declined dramatically in the second half of the 20th century due to suburban sprawl destroying habitat and suitable nesting sites. They usually nest in hollows of trees. Many times this is an abandoned Woodpecker’s nest. Eastern Bluebirds have made a significant recovery due to a campaign of making and mounting backyard birdhouses, designed specifically for them. A female Bluebird typically lays and raises two broods a year. Most Bluebirds die in the first year, due to freezing, starvation or being killed by larger birds or mammals.
The Eastern Kingbird (tyrannus tyrannus) prefers to live on the edges of woods, clearings, river groves, roadsides, etc. It needs trees for nesting and open space for hunting. In mating the male will put on quite an aerobatic display, doing somersaults, zigzags, quick ups and downs and flips in the air. During this display, the small patch of bright red feathers on his head is seen. In the summer, nesting pairs will be spread out. These birds can be seen perching on wires or fences, and they eat all manner of insects, bees and wasps. In the winter, they live on the edges of tropical forests in flocks and eat mostly berries.
The Northern Flicker (colaptes auratus) is one of the few woodpeckers that migrates. Even so, it is common throughout Pennsylvania year round. Its range includes most of North America, parts of the Cayman Islands, Cuba and Central America. My painting depicts a female clinging to the left side of a tree and a male in the center. It flashes a bright splash of color on the undersides of its wings when it flies. In the eastern portion of its range, this is yellow. It the west, this is red. On the Great Plains, both are seen.
The Northern Saw-whet Owl (aegolius acadicus) is commonly present in Pennsylvania woods year round. It is one of the smallest owls, being about the size of a Robin. Adults are 6-3/4″-8=3/4″ (17–22 cm) long with a 16-1/2″-22-1/4″ (42–56.3 cm) wingspan. It is native to North America and was named by settlers for the male’s mating call which sounds like a saw being sharpened on a whet stone. It can go on for hours. Its hearing is peculiarly good at precisely locating the source of sounds. This is attributed to its assymetrical placement of its ears. Think Stephen Colbert.
The Saw-whet Owl prefers northern coniferous forests and is very cold tolerant. It swoops down on its prey (almost exclusively small mammals) from a high perch.
The Red-shouldered Hawk (buteo lineatus) is not as common in this area as it used to be. It is a woodland hawk. The clearing of more land for urban and suburban development has led to its decline. Populations are stable now, with some in southeastern PA year round. The shrill call of this hawk means that its presence is more often heard than seen. Many eastern Blue Jays have learned to expertly imitate this call, providing an effective deterrent to other birds entering their territory.
The Barn Swallow (hirundo rustica) has that unmistakable Swallow shape that allows it to swoop and glide through the sky. This painting is as if from slightly above, as the bird flies over an untamed field of grasses and wildflowers. It builds its nest mostly in manmade structures: garages, bridges, wharves and, of course, barns. Its breeding range includes most of the lower 48 states and half of Canada. It is also common in Europe and Asia. It winters in South America and Africa. It feeds on many and various flying insects, including house flies and horse flies. It catches and eats them in mid-air.
The House Wren (troglodytes aedon) makes up for its dull and unassuming colors with its lively songs and constant activity.
It is named “House” Wren for its tendency to live near people on structures and in birdhouses. It competes for suitable nesting spots with the non-native House Sparrow.
The Eastern Phoebe (sayornis phoebe) is so named because of its call: “fee-bee”. That call is one of the first harbingers of spring in their breeding range, as it is one of the earliest birds to migrate. It tends to nest near water, for the abundance of insects. It is a Flycatcher.
The male defends its territory, which may include two nests, by singing, especially early in the morning.
The Black Vulture (coragyps atratus) is in the Perkasie area year round. As global warming has progressed, its range has moved northward. It forages by flying high over the ground looking for carrion or for other carrion eaters. It can be quite aggressive and has been known to drive off Turkey Vultures and take their food.
These two remind me of the pair of old guys wisecracking on the Muppets.
Only adult, male Blue Grosbeaks (passerina caerulea) are actually blue. Juvenile and female Blue Grosbeaks are light brown. It is a good practice to familiarize oneself with the appearance of females of species to be a more effective birder. They are larger than Indigo Buntings. Perkasie is on the northern edge of their summer breeding range. They winter in the tropics. They feed mostly on insects and seeds, sometimes foraging along the ground, sometimes snatching insects out of the air in mid-flight.
Perkasie is on the northern edge of the year-round range of the Red-bellied Woodpecker (melanerpes carolinus). It is omnivorous and has adapted well to town and suburban development. It nests in hollowed out dead wood, in trees or old fence posts or nesting boxes. The male may start hollowing out several potential nests. The female then selects which one to complete and use. Despite its name, any red on the belly is faint and most of the time not visible.
In the early 20th century, the Wood Duck (aix sponsa) was threatened with extinction. This was the result of the loss of too many large trees and over-hunting. The Wood Duck nests in trees near water. The duck was brought back by a concerted effort to restore habitat and a campaign to provide thousands and thousands of wooden nesting boxes scattered throughout its potential range. A hunters’ conservation organization, Ducks Unlimited, is responsible for much of this work. They are a non-profit, chapter organization. Much of the restoration of habitat has been funded through the sale of duck stamps to hunters. Many of these have become collector’s items, along with larger sized prints of them.
I was thinking of painting a duck stamp with a Wood Duck on it, when I was reminded of this 29 cent US postage stamp from 1991. I decided to paint it instead.
Wood Ducks are beautiful birds. They are also tasty, if a bit greasy and small. My folks had a hunter friend, as I was growing up in Minnesota. My mom was a very skilled cook. This hunter traveled the world shooting wild game. He would accumulate it in our freezer, then invite 20 or so friends to our house, where my mom, B.J., prepared and served a wild game buffet.
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