Portfolio > Animal Paintings. 2014 - 2016.

We Trusted the Ground.
Oil on Canvas
64.5 x 70.5 inches
2016
Fullerton
Oil on Canvas
64.5 x 70.5 inches
2016
This Tornado
Oil on Canvas
24 x 30 inches
2016
Groundswell
Oil on Canvas
4 ft square
2016
Reaching a consensus
30 x 24 inches
2016
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
36 x 30 inches
2016
Photokeratitis.
48 x 36 inches
2015
Throooom.
Oil on Canvas
5 x 3 ft
2015
Home
Oil on Canvas
4 x 4 ft.
2015
Fire Island
Oil on Canvas
4 x 5 ft
2015
Odd Belongings
Oil on Canvas
5 x 3 ft
2015
No Longer Available
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
47 x 63.5"
2014
We Float.
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
72 x 30 inches.
2015
No Longer Available
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
37 x 29.5 "
2014
Remember the Light.
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
47 x 26 inches.
2014
A Place Called Home
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
4 ft x 4 ft.
2014
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
30 x 40 "
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Made of Stars
Oil on Canvas.
4 x 6 ft
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Crease in the Pillow
Oil on Canvas
48 x 60 inches
2016
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Another few steps
Oil on Canvas
2 pcs - each piece 72 x 55.5 inches. Together with negative space 84 x 111 inches.
2016
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. A spoon to dig a hole
Oil on Canvas
2 pcs - each piece 70 x 34 inches. Together with negative space 80 x 68 inches.
2016
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
4 ft square
2016
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
30 x 40 inches
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. The Deep Reach
Oil on Canvas
4 ft square
2016
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
28 x 22 inches
2016
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
30 x 40 inches
2015
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
48 x 36 inches
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  The One You Trust
Oil on Canvas
24 x 24 inches
2016
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Passing.
Oil on Canvas
5 x 3 ft.
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Together Through Life
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 59.5 "
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  The Ashen Ones
Oil on Canvas
30 x 40 inches
2015
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
50 x 50 "
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Daddy Day Care
Oil on Canvas
2 x 2 ft
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Wide Open
Oil on Canvas
12 x 16 "
2015
No Longer Available
Oil on Canvas
4 x 5 ft.
2015
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Aye Aye
Oil on Canvas
2 x 2 ft
2015
No Longer Available
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
30 X 40 "
2014
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Fearless Heart
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
18 x 14 inches
2014
NO LONGER AVAILABLE. There is a light that never goes out.
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
4 ft x 6 ft
2014
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Endless Nameless.
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas.
15 inches Square.
2014
NO LONGER AVAILABLE.  Feeling Gravity’s Pull.
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas.
15 inches Square.
2014
No Longer Available
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
72 x 30 inches.
2014
No Longer Available
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
72 x 30 inches.
2014
No Longer Available
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
72 x 36 inches.
2014

“We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson

A caveat: this writing may only provide you with my intent in making the work, but not the meaning of the work. The meaning is solely provided by your relationship with my paintings.

For my entire adult life I felt like I live in a liminal space. I feel this liminality from the micro level of my lived day to day existence to the macro level of the global environment. All of my artwork has dealt with trying to figure out my tiny, fleeting reason for being. The work in the series “There is a light that never goes out” is about mortality. More specifically, it is about being in the space where we are aware that everything will end, but that life always continues.

There were several events that brought me to this work. Personally, I am now a father and a son. I have two young children and ageing parents. This makes me feel simultaneously fragile (since I am depended upon) and bonded within the stronger history of my bloodline. The second seemingly unrelated event that led to this work was discovering that the carcasses of whales feed the ocean floor for one hundred years: the same duration as their lives. I decided to create paintings that were about being on this threshold between living and death and back to living again.

The paintings are purposefully uncanny. The animals might be sleeping or they might be waking. They might be alive or they might be dead. The flowers might be growth or funereal flowers placed upon them. The animals could be metaphors for people, or they might just be animals. My goal is for them to exist in no particular space which allows the viewer to place them wherever they imagine.

I purposely choose animals which I find highly relatable to humans, and animals that hold majestic symbolic authority. Personally, each animal is symbolic of people that I have mourned and will likely mourn, although I doubt this autographical meaning is transferable to the viewer. They are titans humbled by time. Sadly, many of these animals are endangered and even those which aren’t may be soon. The flowers – my artistic offering to these animals – are all based on flowers which would originate from the same geographical location as the animals.

Much of artmaking is an attempt to offer some permanence to life, and I have thought about that while making this work. The creatures in these paintings are consistently in situ. They are representations of life, but are equally merely symbolic. Ultimately and most importantly, I see these paintings as hopeful. The one bond which links every living being together is our fragility, and that is undeniable glorious.