Additional Pieces:

Here are two more pieces that I personally like very much...

Self Reliance:

I finished this piece literally an hour ago...

It took a lot of work...  But it is already one of my favorites...

I had this vision for a very long time...  But it used to come to me in bits and pieces...  Not until recently was I able to clearly visualize the entire piece...

Here, I have tried to use contrasts (in colors and textures) to bring out the multi-dimensional nature of who we really are....!  

I'll let you fill in the rest!!!...

No Name (yet):

Believe it or not, a pair of boots that I purchased a while back inspired me to do this piece!!!  

I know what you are thinking...  "... what the hell kind of boots does this guy wear?..."

Oh well, let the artist be a bit of an eccentric once in a while...

This piece, as you can clearly see uses the element of mixed media again...  the piece of burlap is completely torn in the bottom and smaller pieces are literally hanging by threads!!!!

This painting accompanies me in my office at work; and reminds me that there is more to life than just working!!!!

Recent Paintings

Introduction:

My friends,
You have all been very supportive of my work so far, and I truly appreciate all of your comments and encouragements on and off of this website.   

Now that you have had a taste of my writings and poems, I thought we should add more color and variety to the site and start posting my other work as well...

In this post you see four of my recent paintings...

I am often asked about the meaning of each painting; or more precisely, people ask me "what I was thinking about" when painting...

Obviously (for those who know me well), I never answer that question...

I simply believe that my thoughts, inspirations, feelings and motivations for bringing an image to life are not as important and as significant as the feelings, emotions and interpretations that they provoke within "you"-the observers; and I do not wish to influence or dilute them with my descriptions and interpretations!

However, I will say that before each painting is brought to life on canvas, the image of that painting is developed & occupies my thoughts...  I see it as vividly in my mind's eye as one would see it once it is on canvas...

The image will remain there until it is brought to life...  Once done, it will give way to the next creation...

As for these particular pieces, they are all a combination of oil and acrylic paints.  They all have some element of mixed media that allows me to bring additional texture and dimension to each piece...

From the top down, they are:

Secret

This multimedia piece allowed me to simply bring focus to the lock that is at the center of the canvas.

No, it is not a real lock...  I get asked that from almost every single person who sees the picture and not the painting...

Locks have a very special meaning to me...

In fact, I collect antique locks...

I am absolutely fascinated by them...

Whom they belonged to?

What did they protect?

What have they seen?

No Name (yet)

This piece combines a two dimensional picture with a three dimensional texture of a burlap dress...  Raised, and at some points free of the confines of the canvas, the dress bridges our world with that of the woman in the painting...

No Name (yet)

This piece is my latest...

As a matter of fact, it is only a week old, and has not yet even dried...

Here, I added the element of "metal" to the painting...

Very fine sheets of metallic material are used in this painting...  some have been somewhat preserved, and some have been completely smeared and embedded into the canvas itself...

Victory

I have made many different sketches and renditions of this image over the past couple of years...  This is the only one that I have brought on canvas.

Hope you enjoy them...!

Decision 2008, a rendezvous with destiny!

As I stood in the cardboard booth…

Manipulating the knobs and buttons of the electronic voting machine….

Casting my vote…

I could not have even begun to imagine…

The enormity of what was to come a few hours later…

 

Tonight…

More than ever before…

I am proud to call myself an American…

Not just because we as a nation…

Abandoned our prejudice heritage…

Not just because this time, we didn’t have to choose between two artificial flavors of the same old recipe…  (Two empty suits…  Void of vision… and filled with self interest…)

But because this time…

Our vote stood for something more…

Something much more profound…

And much more fundamental…

 

Tonight…

We voted for America…

Tonight…

We reclaimed our nation…

 

It will be a while…

Maybe a long while…

Before we truly understand and appreciate the enormity of “decision 2008”…

But what should be evident to every single one us…

As clear as day…

Is that we just witnessed the birth of a new era…

In which every citizen of this country HAS to think, act and feel as responsible as a public servant…

For the victory is not whom we elected…

The victory comes when we-as people-come together to restore our nation…

The victory comes when being a citizen does not mean relinquishing responsibility and tolerating incompetence…  (incompetence?  Not descriptive enough…  How about “outright rape” of a nation?)…

Rather the victory comes…

When we stand up for ourselves, for our families, friends, and neighbors…

When we don’t forget that the government is supposed to be there to "serve" and  to "protect us"… and not to dictate how we live or what we have to endure...

That our elected officials are not part of an “untouchable elite”, and rather, our “servants”, our “employees”…

When we refuse to be manipulated like powerless puppets through fear and under the guise of patriotism…

When we “stand up” for ourselves as we did today…

 

Our responsibility does not end tonight…

It can’t…

We cannot go back to another “4-year hibernation”…

We cannot sit idle when our hard-earned dollars are spent on ever-increasing gas prices under the disguise of demand and supply nonsense while every oil company reports astronomical earnings quarter after quarter…

We cannot sit idle when our tax dollars are spent on bailing out bad businesses and bad business decisions…

We cannot continue to pay CEOs of large corporations for failing… 

We cannot be tolerant or merciful when corporations cheat the public, steal from us, and poison our environment…  

We cannot allow others to take our focus away from what is really important by continuously bombarding us with propaganda and striking fear into our hearts…  We are supposed to be the poster-child of freedom on this planet, and yet, we choose to stay quiet because we are too afraid…  Just watch a morning or evening news and count the reasons why you should be afraid that day…  Afraid of a new disease because the pharmaceuticals want us to buy yet another useless placebo…    And when we decide to take that medicine, our TV tells us a million times day, of the side effects that we should be afraid of…  Afraid of an imaginary threat we know absolutely nothing about…   Because there is no opportunity for corporate America and Haliburtons of the world to make money if they let our government deal with the real threats…  Afraid to travel…  Afraid to lose our jobs…   Afraid that if we open our minds, read for a change, or god forbid, look outside our own little shallow world, we might find something even bigger to be afraid of… OUR OWN IGNORANCE!!!

We can no longer afford to close our eyes to what goes on in the world and to hide behind our short attention spans and attention deficit disorders…

We can no longer afford to wear the fluffy blind fold and focus our attention and concern to what Brad and Angelina are doing, what happens to Britney in the rehab, or whether Lindsey is gay, straight or both…

We can no longer allow Prozac and Viagra to be the solutions to all of our problems…

The responsibility…

Our responsibility…

Our “renewed” responsibility…

Begins tonight…

It may not be abundantly clear from what I have written tonight…

But I am actually very hopeful…

I am hopeful that what transpired tonight…

And what is ahead…

Will be a catalyst…

To awaken us from our slumber…

To renew our sense of responsibility as citizens…

 

Tonight…

Our future…

Is in our hands!!!

Tonight...

We have a rendezvous with our destiny...