American Youth Series

American Youth is a series of paintings depicting the experience of returning to live in my hometown of Fort Worth, Texas after being away for almost 10 years.  I've spent the better part of this year consumed  with it.  Every flat surface of the studio has been covered in Lincoln Logs, cap guns, wind-up robots and dinosaur figurines.  Grocery money was spent on thrift store toys and hours went by as I re-read the diaries I had written as a kid.  I climbed back into my childhood and now it's time to resurface.  I'm done with the series and the series is done with me.  So long cowboy...

  

 Jacks Landscape

oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

Doll Landscape

oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

 Dinos

oil on vintage wallpaper,13"x11", 2012

 Birds

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

 Guns

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

 Cowboys & Indians

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

Jacks

oil on vintage wallpaper, 13"x11", 2012

 Ode to the Joan Vollmer-William Tell Incident

oil on wood, 46"x34", 2012

Can Phone

oil on wood, 46"x34", 2012

 American Youth Airborne

oil on wood, 50"x34", 2012

 American Youth on Land

oil on wood, 50"x34", 2012

 American Youth at Sea

oil on wood, 50"x34", 2012

 Dino Cowboy Standoff

pastel, 8"x10", 2012

 Robo Wagon

embroidery, 8"x10", 2012

Pink Boot Convo

acrylic and pastel, 8"x10", 2012

Paintin' Like I'm Headed For Prison.

I try really hard to focus on one maybe two paintings at a time.  If not, I'd be up to my eyeballs in unfinished work.  Not only would I have enough material to build a small city from the half-done shite, but it would be a small city built of weird, completely random and poorly thought out ideas.  Wait...that's kinda like what my work is anyway.  So...having said that, I now find myself smack dab in the middle of three largish in-progress paintings.  I super promise to not start anymore.

***JACKS PAINTING PROGRESS****

Booooorrring.........

Awesomer.

***DOLL LANDSCAPE PROGRESS ***

This is the painting that will never end.  At this moment I feel it is very close to completion simply cuz I can't fit any more weird stuff into it.  Or can I?

***SPECIMEN TABLE PROGRESS***

Skrimp in jar -  beginning to make an appearance...check.  Skull...check.  Other stuff...getting there.

Science + Art = Friends

So apparently if I throw in the eye candy from the pics below, begin reading Origin of Species, watch  Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, sprinkle in a skull, an ammonite fossil, some leaves, and include the inspiration of 17th century Dutch still lifes containing dead game...I get the beginning stages of a painting that looks exactly like the one above.

 Bouquet collected with my mom on Thanksgiving day.

 Studies I did from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's collection.

 Jar O Shrimp from Tulane Uni's Biodiversity Research Institute.

 A birthday flower given to me by my friend Carey.

Skunk study from FWMSH.

Doll Landscape Finished...Sike.

11/27/12

TA-DUH!!!!!  Seriously, this is done.  I know I've said that about this painting like 4 times but I super duper mean it this time.

*******************AND AGAIN....******************

11/3/12

Dude...this thing was pulled from the finished pile...again.  I needed to add critters.  A garter snake, earthworm, mouse, monarch butterfly, redfish, and sparrow have now made an appearance.  Pics to follow....

****************UPDATED....AGAIN****************

Sometime in late Oct.

Okay dude, NOW...Doll Landscape.  Is.  Finished.  

Doll Landscape, oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

 cha-ching

 Eames Chair

rotary

****************UPDATED****************

10/15/12

I pulled the Doll Landscape from the finished pile.  I thought it was done but apparently it needed an Eames Chair and a rotary phone.  And you know what?  It's still not complete.  More to come... 

******************************************

9/17/12
Okay so here is the creepy doll baby-landscape painting also know as panel #1 from Fort Art.  I don't find her creepy anymore although you may beg to differ.

Doll Landscape, oil on wood, 48"x32", 2012

This is a landscape I've  had behind my eyelids since I was a child (sans doll baby) .  It's fully fabricated because it's not a place I've been before.  Maybe it's a combo of many places but when I first pictured it, I didn't have a lot of landscape experience.  The only other scenes besides Texas I'd witnessed were New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and California - all in the summertime.