Tuesday, December 30, 2008

DIGGING UP BONES






A rare moment of downtime afforded me the luxury of snooping through my parent's attic one afternoon. Boxes of old books, cards, pictures, letters, school projects, and homemade Halloween costumes filled one corner of the room. Trunks were stuffed with moth-eaten regalia: my Nana's ratty fur coats, my father's old army uniforms, and my mother's Beaver College varsity jackets. There were two dead television sets, a few small appliances waiting for rewiring, and numerous dusty mousetraps - some sprung, and some still set and baited with oily, fossilized cheese. A century of attic heat had kiln dried the rafters - raising the grain and fraying the knob and tube. There was a single window sill, thick with bat droppings and hollow bug carcasses. One bare bulb cast a weak yellow light that created a fading evening ambiance no matter the time of day.

* an excerpt from my cancer memoir "CAR DEALER'S DAUGHTER"

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

PROUTS PERSPECTIVE



I rarely paint landscapes. I've managed to tuck a hint of vista into the background of a portrait, and I've sculpted realistic nature models, but rarely do I paint full on sweeps of land or coast. It's not for lack of attraction to nature; I'm far more interested in Mother nature than human nature, but it seems most of my paintings are figurative. 

*Here's a 3'x4' portion of Prouts Neck in the works. 



Saturday, December 6, 2008

IN THIS CORNERRRRRR - WEIGHING IN AT 147 lbs. - OSCAR DE LA HOYA!




There's the big welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena tonight: 35 year old Oscar De La Hoya and 29 year old Manny Pacquiao. If I had any money, my bets would be on "The Golden Boy," and I'd be watching it couch-side (if I had a couch) on PayPerView for $49.95. Good luck Oscar, I'm in your corner.

* This is a 5'x6' painting I did of the 1996, Oscar De La Hoya / Julio Cesar Chavez fight which ended in the 3rd round - a TKO De La Hoya.