Portrait of Nike Rat

This is a portrait of the first rat toy, Nike, who was made out of an old and very soft Nike t-shirt. He set the standard for all future rats, with his long luxurious tale, beady intelligent eyes, and sausage legs, which are just barely covered by his crazy shorts. For these portraits I set each rat up inside a cardboard box and painted them life size.

Lemonhead with Self-Portrait

Ok, this one is a little more involved, and probably can't be easily explained.
It grew out of a grad school project, the purpose of which I fail to remember, but Lemonhead was somehow required to sculpt a self-portrait and he chose cheese as his medium, string cheese to be exact. And of course, a lemon for the head, and squash, tortilla chips, dry spaghetti, raisins, and an apple-skin bowtie.

Portrait of Lemonhead Rat

This is from of a series of small paintings of handmade stuffed animals which were favorite toys of my son. I approached these as if they were actual portrait commissions, looking for the personality expressed through pose, lighting, clothing, and setting. It is oil on canvas, 12" x 16".

Pepino Melons

This is a small oil painting on wood panel, 9" x 14". Here I was interested in just looking at the subject in the most concentrated way possible, with the most intense focus I could bring to it. This method of working creates a meditative feeling which the finished painting retains.

Bird Nest

Around the time our kids were leaving home I started to notice bird's nests everywhere I looked. I collected them and drew and painted them. This one is watercolor, 12" x 12".

Closeup of Offering.

Offering

The figure in this painting came from a drawing I did of a sleeping girl, but for the painting I wanted to suggest something about the attitude of meditation, a sense of abandon and trust that happens in the meditative state. Her hands cup a small blue egg in a classic pose of offering. It is 31" x 50" on raw linen, half drawn with red conte crayon and half painted in oil.