Ink Flowers

This 35x40 canvas is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I enjoyed making it and it actually took a while because of all the layering. I started with a newspaper background, then used glues and mediums to mix black and white into an inconsistent semi-transparent gray. I applied and mixed with the brush and my hand to give it swirly textures and crisp definitions. Then acrylic paint for the funny frame and ink for the flowers. Some flowers are made of tissue paper too and the origins of the black soil of the flowers stem from black tissue paper.

Orange With Streaks

A tissue paper art piece. It has silver lines flowing from one corner of the canvas that are visible when the canvas is tilted.

Ocean and Green Grass With Weeds

These are two tissue paper constructions on canvas - 12x16 each. The green one also has some acrylic integrated. I think of them as companion pieces, they were created one after the other and look right together. You can imagine the images that went through my head while I created them by the titles; Ocean and Green Grass With Weeds

"See All" - My First Bronze

Completed: One awesome bronze poured sculpture. The ideas behind it vary it started as two ideas and grew to encompass so much more. It can be summarized simply when we consider the different elements, but after you read this think about how this explanation can be expanded.

One side is fire moving, getting lighter as it moves upwards, the other has water, getting heavier as it moves downwards. In the middle there is a hollow circle. One side of the circle has an eye, the other side has a ying-yang of a flame and water droplet meshed together.

For me it is another manifestation of seeing the dualities in the world and yet overcoming that idea of dualities being incompatible, seeing it and understanding that they also complete each other. Fire and water balance each other and excess or scarcity of either and the world is unrecognizable and perhaps not even in existence. Our vision can be caught between or it can recognize the harmony. It is the binaries and opposites in the world that divide and unify the world we exist in.

Liminal Footing

This is where I step, this is where I am between.
At this point I am neither here nor there.
I am in liminal footing.

Kanf'ei Yisrael (The Wings Of Israel)

The prophets stated that we would come on the wings of eagles to Ehretz Yisrael (Israel), it seems today that we have returned via every type of wing and every type of tradition.

Lo Tasuru

There is a torah verse that tells you the laws of the rabbis are as binding as those laws of the Torah. It is usually summed up by the first phrase, "Lo tasuru yamin u'smaul" (Don't turn right of left [from what they tell you is the law]). This is the person who does not know which road she should not turn from. 

Fork In The Road

Untitled Impasto Abstract

The tilt makes it hard to see but I wanted to accentuate the thick lines that are more obvious in person. Each color has a different surface. I generally think of earth grass sky and sun when I see this but others have expressed different 'feelings' and images coming to mind.

Wax Scuplture

Let me preface this with the fact that I sincerely enjoyed working with the wax, especially since I had started to dread working with a new material after becoming so comfortable with the plasticine. This also started with a trip outside to the stove where I watched the small beads-like chips of wax melt into a steaming hot liquid. The color of the deep red wax was beautiful and I marveled at the transition of color as it dried. The melted wax color is gorgeous when it is hot, almost the color of a hot-tamale candy, and nearly transparent when dripping off the brush in a thin layer like a piece of blown Chihuly glass.

Next I got to work on correcting all the imperfections that come from the rubber mould’s imprint of the plasticine. On the fun side I got to smooth the wax using a giant torch. A blue fire zips out from the tip of the spout placed on top of the green propane gas bottle. To do so I heated the smooth edge of the metal tool by the blue flame. Once the knife is smoking the wax will become liquid with the slightest touch. It was wonderful just sliding the blade over the liquid wax and smoothing it, brushing the knife this way then that. The wax then solidified so quickly, it was amazing. I also like smoothing with the metal sheet grid and the kerosene, specifically using it to shear away the tiny edges of the wax left from the rim of the knife. Running your finger over that completely smoother surface was awesome because I was initially apprenhensive about getting that frictionless surface with the wax.