All the original art on the website is my own. Visual art I find to be a good balance to writing. It is visceral, less logical, and easy to absorb as a whole. It’s nice to turn off my brain (at least the left side) and lose myself. My artwork spans from mixed media on canvas, using acrylic or watercolor, to plaster on canvas. The work below incorporates both forms. The ink figures are repeating motifs on the website.
The Fire of Vishnu
2009. ink, acrylic, plaster, paper collage, watercolor on canvas. 24” x 18”
This piece was inspired by the Ramayana, which I read in Thailand two years ago. An epic poem written around 300 B.C. by the Indian poet Valmiki. It’s the story of Rama, the son of Vishnu, and his journey of exile and struggle before becoming king. Rama rescues his wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana, a powerful ten-headed demon, then destroys him to restore balance to the world. Though it involves Hindu deities, the story is well known throughout Buddhist Southeast Asia as a tale of moral instruction. I recommend Ramesh Menon’s excellent version of the Ramayana as vivid and appropriately epic.
Castro and the Alien Robot Crabs
2010. water color, acrylic, plaster, paper collage and ink on canvas. 30” x 15”
It began with Castro and his mates, locked and loaded, ready to swoop into Havana and grab power. A primordial ooze materialized around them, a cosmic slipstream of consciousness. Then, hovering over Castro’s head, came the Alien Robot Crabs (in opposition? in mockery? on a rascally misadventure? a manifestation of power hungry delusion?), cross-eyed and grinning through the grills of their smeared teeth. Thai characters followed, branding the Crabs. Then scientists and enthusiastic kids, who joined the group think, trumpeting quasi-corporate slogans and promising dynamic results, reducing the Great Leader to a vector in a confused marketing campaign.
