ART

"Mohawk Protecting Angel"
Pencil, Ink & Oil
8" X 10" $1275 - Original / handmade frame

This piece took a really long time to complete. Not the time I put into drawing it, but the time I put into being afraid of it. I didn't want to touch her face, I didn't want to ruin it. My relationship to the creation of this piece was parallel to the creation of my relationship to her... to Mary. She's in my life but "I can't touch her". I stunted my imagination AND I expressed exactly what was there for me. I brought color/ life to what I remember most about her the first time I saw her, from a distance, in the dim room... before she disappeared into the crowd. Before I knew her. Before I so powerfully looked for and found her. Mary represents the power I have as a human being and the fear I have of possessing that power. She is my muse, my angel, my expression of art since I learned of expression. She is a mirror of me... the darkness and the light. The twisted and tangled brilliance. The roots represent me. The roots represent her. I am her. She is me. She brings out the best in me. I resist her. I resist me. She protects me and I'm so protective of her... The title of this piece has nothing to do with the work itself... it's just who she is.

"You have my heART" Pencil and Ink
8" X 10" $675 - Original
Only 20 prints available

This is a self portrait and the first piece of my new life in art. I had lost my passion for about 12 years before having participated in the Landmark Forum. Also just before the Landmark Forum, I met a woman that I now know as the first of 7 muses. Cameo inspired me in a way I hadn't felt in years and possibly ever in my life. I saw her and I saw art. I was intimidated by the power this woman had on my imagination so I pushed her away not knowing the real reason why. In my desperation and in an attempt to get her back in my life... I created this piece in honor of who she is to me. The spark that started up my passion. She is the girl who has my ART.

"UnderWoman" Pencil and Ink
8" X 10" $675 - Original

I created UnderWoman in 1998 when I realized that I had a Superhero complex so, I decided to have fun with my self image. Her suit is actually indestructible in a usual battle, but this particular battle you see her in, is against the resignation of the world. It's taking everything she has and still only shows struggle on her clothing, not to her body or being. She doesn't fight villains like the other superheroes, she goes right to the source. UW has chameleon abilities and can speak to animals. Her wings aren't cracked. What you see is energy, but since her wings are so white and pure, the energy occurs as a darker color. She is on fire inspiring and possesses great compassion. She has super listening abilities. All the red in this picture represents love and passion. The darkness is trying to survive and penetrate her internal beauty...
but UnderWoman is impervious!

"How's Life?" Pencil, Pen, Oil, Ink
8"X11" $1200 -Original

This piece took approximately 60 hours to complete. It was originally a concept for a rebirth themed show. the girl is being given a new chance at life and she's resisting it. Bringing along with her, everything from her past. In her mind, her past won't let go of her and there is no hope for her. Where she comes from, who she is and knows herself to be... will not set her free or allow for anything new to occur. While life, hope and new beginnings surround her, she is constrained by her past, her roots, her reality. So what's possible in life? How's life going to be for her if she can't let go of things that happened to her that she had no control over? If she can't forgive herself for not being strong enough, good enough, fast enough, smart enough... to have prevented those events from happening...?

"Unconditional" Mixed Medium On Paper
Handmade Frame
11"X14" $575- Original

This is a self portrait. I didn't know how to title this image until my last show. I've just had it as "true love", but that title didn't capture what I am trying to portray. This piece is of myself and my youngest niece Shayli. What I love about this piece is the contrast between her and I. She's a little pink thing, tiny, delicate, soft... while I am more of a warrior ;)... hard, rough... you get the point. The message is simply that there are no conditions for this love. It doesn't have to look a certain way, it doesn't have to fit a mold. Right now she has no idea what my name is, she doesn't care what I look like, she doesn't even know that she loves me... all there is for her is a girl that makes her smile when she is around. It is absolutely true love for me. I am looking into a mirror here in the sense that when I see her, I see the love I have learned to have for others through her. Unconditional and pure...

"World Boy" Mixed Medium - On Paper
8"X10" - SOLD

This boy has just been given the world. Figuratively, when we say that, it's a beautiful sentiment. "I'd give you the world if I could" is a really sweet thing to hear. Do you actually think about everything that comes with the beauty of the world? The sadness, the fighting, the struggle, the hate, the violence, the power trips, the hunger, the gluttony, the deceit, rape, murder, abuse, the immense lack of human connection... is this really a world you want to give someone? Is this how we are going to leave the world for our kids? This boy is 2 years old and he has no choice of the world he is born into or is raised in. We didn't have a choice either. Yet we are totally responsible for allowing it to stay this way. Every single human being has the power to make a difference in the world. This boy doesn't know what to do with the world he is given. He's not sure he even wants to hold onto it. I know the kind of world I want to give this boy and I will give my life to giving him a world he will actually embrace and gladly give to his own children. What kind of world are you giving him?

"Broken Earth" Gel Pens -SOLD
Prints Available

I was 25 years old and in my first relationship with a woman. I wasn't ready to be in a committed relationship, I still wanted to explore my options. I was "marriage material" so I didn't want to be snatched up that early. When I met this girl I thought, "she's not my type but she's a good person and she deserves to be with someone like me". I was her reward for being a person of integrity and so nurturing. My heart wasn't with her, I was doing her a favor and simply with her so that I could have my first relationship. I didn't want my first to be my last. I had always considered myself a good person until I met someone that was a better person. I learned quickly of how shallow I was and how egotistical. My world was shattered when I learned that I was not an Angel... This is the only piece I've created that doesn't have a victory. It was an ugly truth... This represents me in the most real and present way. It's raw, open, vulnerable, conscious, powerful and beautiful...

"Empty and Meaningless" Pencil
8"X10" - $175

While this piece holds no actual meaning for me, as far as the content... it does represent a lot for me in what I am capable of doing. I do know the girl. We used to work together. It was a baby picture. The original, "karen", was created in 1997. It was a piece I was never happy with because of the tape residue on Karen's eye. It was a distraction and I just kept the piece in hiding for years. I brought it back out for my first show, this year. I looked at it and thought, "something needs to happen with this". So, I traced the tape pieces and added a few more for kicks. I added more detail and darkened it some. I couldn't think of a single thing it could mean and that's when it hit me... "Empty and Meaningless". It doesn't mean anything!! To hear the many different interpretations of where other people take it's meaning, has been amazing and gives me insight into their lives, their pasts, their view of life. For me, it simply represents how I can create something that works out of a mistake.

"Lady Papa" Mechanical Pencil
8"X10" - $500

This is a young girl with a heart of gold and an old soul. Papa found me on-line through a mutual friend and I fell in love with her face immediately. She's got so much character in her face and the more I learned about her, the more beautiful her face became to me. Papa has one of those faces I became obsessed with drawing when I first became passionate about doing portraits. In this piece I am bringing together 3 women that had a huge impact on my art and who I knew myself to be in my teen and early adult years. 1- The ideal or fantasy woman for me at that time. Boyish in a way, yet still very feminine, beautiful and sexy. If I could dream her up, this is what she would have looked like. 2- Angelina Jolie. Angie actually saved me from a lot of pain in my obsessing with her. I knew she wouldn't hurt me so it was safe to give her all that love. 3- Myself. I've come to learn that everything I love about other people is what I love about myself. I've learned that every piece, no matter who and what I draw, is a self portrait. You get me in every way...

"Tiny Dragon" Mechanical Pencil
Not Available

Boy do I put a lot of love into my work...
The woman in this piece was my first big breakthrough in love. With her I discovered: The story I lived in that "I'll never be good at love". My hidden agenda to prove "you will leave me just like everyone else". My unanswerable question "when are you going to leave me?", and she was the first person to begin the opening of my mind. This was drawn when I was in a very vulnerable state. I am the Dragon. It was the first time I had felt small after 5 months of being bigger than any circumstance. It was also my first attempt at love since August 2007. I did prove she would leave.. and it was the hardest, most painful loss I've had to recover from. Because I knew the quality of human being that Jaime is. Imagine living a life in which your only view of people was that they are going to leave you... and you never knew that. Imagine the freedom you would gain in discovering that, no matter what the cost... the gain is so much greater. What you lose is in the past and you have a whole new world to build upon when that blinding view of people is out of your future.

"Cameo" Mechanical Pencil
$375

The inspiration before I was inspired. This was my favorite photograph of Cameo. It was to be the first of a trilogy. I knew exactly what the set would look like. I built 3 frames for it, by hand. I even took breaks to draw other people and had that same passion and excitement. I anticipated getting back to Cameo. I didn't sleep for 2 days to complete this portrait... pretty passionate for a girl that only "doodles" as a hobby. I have never had that kind of passion for a drawing before that day. This woman breathed life into an area of life that had been dead for 12 years. I didn't even know what hit me. All I know is that this woman, my muse, gave me something to be excited about. Cameo is the first to contribute to the incredible future I'm living into...

"Mechelle" Mechanical Pencil

This is Mechelle. I was crazy in love with this girl, for about 5 years. At one point suicidal even. She was my first love and someone I had a very hard time letting go of. She was a big "issue" while I was married because my wife could tell I wasn't over losing her. I had it that I had nothing left to give because I gave it all to her, so I never loved my wife nearly as much as I loved Mechelle. This piece was drawn right after Mechelle and I broke up. There is so much emotion that went into drawing this portrait. So much love, desperation, defeat, self destruction, and pain. 3 months later, I got this portrait tattooed on my right ribcage, symbolizing the last time I would ever feel pain over her, and that she would be with me forever. It's one of my favorite pieces and stories from the past.

"Broken Girl" Mechanical Pencil
5"X8" - $150

This piece was originally created in 1996 for my high school newspaper. It was to go along with a poem that I think I wrote anonymously. It was a self portrait but I didn't want anyone to know it was me so it doesn't look like me. There are 10 strings that each represent something in my life that was breaking my heart and trying to pull me apart. There are 4 additional strings that represent the things that kept me together and strong. Those were: God, my family, my friends and there is one string on the bottom that is both breaking my heart and holding it together. It's not supposed to be obvious, but that represents my obsession at the time. Cyndi. I could have told you exactly what each of the 10 strings were back in '96. I don't remember now. What made me want to update it recently?... the fingers... my fingers. I was responsible the entire time for the pain and suffering. All I did was give the strings a name so that I was no longer responsible and could live as a victim to circumstance.

"Fantasy Forrest" Pencil - SOLD

A piece inspired by my first crush when I came out. She is a tree huggin- peace lovin', very sexual woman... I don't think I ever drew a tree before Joi came into my life, but since then, I put trees into a lot of my work just because I enjoyed creating them. This piece was the beginning of a new style of artwork for myself. It was one of the first that got me to love using my imagination instead of simply recreating what was already there. This piece took my portraits to another level. It was my first insight into who I am as an artist.

"For the Hell in me" Pencil
8"X10" - $300

I was sitting in the bedroom with my ex wife when the image came to me. I had a lot of built up resentment toward her, about 2 years worth, because of all I withheld in that relationship. She became so ugly to me... a monster. We were even "at peace" when I drew this. But this was the picture I always had of her. She was sweet and kind and even gentle with me... and the beast was all I could see. This was my outlet, along with getting everyone in my life to agree with me that she wasn't as nice as she appears on the outside. I wanted everyone to see the ugliness I saw so that I could be right about her. I painted myself as the victim of her rage and anger issues. I made myself look innocent when I never communicated anything with her. I wouldn't speak for days and left her so alone in the relationship. so, look again... who was the real monster? Things aren't always as they appear kids

"ButterFleye" Pencil, Ink & Oil
5"X8" - $150

For a long time I've had a thing with butterflies. Not a big fan, I just liked the challenge of drawing the wings exactly mirroring one another. Then my dad said, "butterflies are one of the ugliest insects that exist. People never notice that because all they can see are the wings. The insect itself is really ugly". That completely altered my view of them. This piece was originally drawn to represent what I heard. The butterfly's wings were really distracting, and not identical or symmetrical in pattern. In the background, there were birds and mountains that formed the nose and lips that completed a face. It represented how ignorant we all were to the ugliness of the world.

Now, what it represents is transformation. In every way. From the metamorphosis of a butterfly, to the final draft and meaning of this piece. The beauty we find in the world, in others, is a reflection of the beauty we see in ourselves. This is me and what you find beautiful about me is a mirror of the beauty you see in you...

"Wings" Mechanical Pencil
Not Available

This is Mechelle. Who she is to me is someone that could take over the world if she wanted to. She can and does get everything she wants. She's an incredibly talented musician and a bit of a genius. To me, she is powerful, she is brilliant, she's beautiful and she can fly. She has a dark/ twisted sense of humor, which is why I fell in love with her when I did, and I don't know anyone with the kind of passion this girl has. Passion for life, love and laughter. Passion in every form of her expression. There ain't a single thing this girl does without passion. Can you see it?

"The Reasons" Pencil, Ink & Oil
8"X10" - $575

This is a portrait of Cameo. My first muse. I started this piece back in August '07, when she and I were on good terms. I sent her a sketch of what it was starting to look like and she displayed it in anger, after the good terms were off, on her profile page. I went through several spaces in that relationship and I resisted completing the drawing. I did not want to complete it because it was connected to a person attached to a lot of resentment. It didn't have the same meaning anymore and... then I got that I was being the same. I resented her for being with her pain, for living her life the way she chose to live her life. I resented her form of expression... so I gave it up and continued with the piece. I spent 2 days falling back in love with her without considering her story about me. When I thought I was done, I looked and felt something was missing. The picture itself wasn't telling the story of what it represents to me. So, I expressed it by simply writing the reasons I chose to continue. I don't need a reason to express or feel love toward another human being. I just am love...