My 2012 Painting Portfolio Is... ALIVE!!!

It was supposed to be finished and en route to galleries by October 31. For that reason I dubbed the project "Halloween Massacre." I pushed to get the Xanadu painting finished in order for me to meet that deadline. I generally don't miss deadlines, but its been a crazy mixed up fall of 2011 for me.

I finally finished it tonight, although I don't anticipate having any completed packages ready to mail out until sometime next week. You can get your hot little hands on a PDF version right here.

The Legacy Of A Dead Planet

My work is a record of a personal journey of discovery and adventure. It's a deeper look into the conflict between Nature and Man. Studying this conflict requires complete honesty, and in order to fully understand the dynamic, an observer must accept the possibility that the side to which his sympathy is given may not be winning.

This is not such an easy idea to accept for someone who is a lover of Nature, because it should be obvious that Nature will most likely obliterate any of Man's accomplishments. That which Man creates is made of Nature's building blocks, and is therefore no greater than Nature herself. Buildings crumble and rot, images fade away, civilizations and their hopes and dreams fall to pieces as elements react with elements and molecules with molecules. Sublime natural forces such as rust or mold are as detrimental to Mankind as the atomic fusion that creates stars and galaxies.

So if Nature has so much going for it, how can Mankind possibly pose a threat? What efforts can humans bring that will overcome the powers of creation? These are questions that I have been exploring in my studies of abandoned buildings and polluted wetlands. The first look at a crumbling brick row home with trees growing up through the roof would seem to indicate that given enough time, Nature will get the upper hand. But something else is there, something sinister, something malignant, even depraved.

Picture yourself on a canoe, floating down a canal that cuts through a thick marsh, with the tops of foxtail grasses reaching fifteen feet above the water line. Their roots are planted firmly in an oozy, green and brown base of land that seems like an ordinary marsh bed when casually viewed as you drift by. Upon closer inspection, you discover that this miry substratum is more than muddy earth. It's also a tangled mesh of old shoes, bottles, cans, wires, fabric, hoses, and any other relic that Man can create and discard. You soon realize that this marsh is growing on a land base that is made entirely of garbage. Acre after acre of what seemed like a pristine aquatic wilderness is actually an old landfill.

I used to claim that my work was, at its very core, optimistic. I believed that by drawing attention to distressed environments, I could convey the need to address concerns about the natural world and what our species would do to reverse the devastation it had caused. I believed that ultimately, Nature would prevail and rid itself of the plague that Mankind had brought. As I do more research and observation I'm beginning to feel that perhaps I was initially misguided and wrongly idealistic.

My recent studies of the New Jersey Meadowlands have reinforced this feeling. There aren't many places on earth where an ecosystem has suffered so terribly from the wanton greed and selfishness of the human quest for wealth and power. With air, water and land tainted with the poisonous by-products of Mankind's material culture, there is little reason to believe that a place that was transformed from a living wetland into a toxic wasteland can ever return to its original form. The discarded refuse and contamination is simply too widespread and too deeply infused into the land to ever be cleaned out enough to support life. The available land continues to be consumed by the demand for real estate, and the behavior of the water is forever re-directed to comply with the requirements of Mankind.

The optimism that I thought was the core emotion in my work has revealed itself to be despair. The more I see, the less I feel that Nature can eradicate the inherited desolation of a pernicious human civilization. Solid waste and toxic chemicals could potentially remain as part of the Earth's surface forever. The self-destructive and suicidal behavior of a species which chooses to live in such a way that destroys the very ecosystem on which it relies for its survival is further proof that there is little chance for salvation from this fate. Even after our species vanishes from history, there will be a legacy, and I have chosen to record it in my paintings: the legacy of a dead planet.

We Are The People And We Occupy

Corporations are entities which are comprised of two things: money and people. Without people, corporations don't exist.

Look around you and what do you see? A city.

There are those who would tell you that this city with all its buildings and roads and bridges were all brought to you by banks and corporations.

But banks and corporations don't build things. People build things.

Corporations don't provide jobs. People provide jobs.

When we work for a corporation, they need us.

Because Its people who lay bricks.
It's people who pave roads.
It's people who pull levers and push buttons.
It's people who mop floors and clean toilets.
It's people who are designers and engineers.
It's people who do accounting.
It's people who make decisions.
It's people behind a desk who hire other people.

If you ask me if we are slaves to corporations, I say "no!"
So why do they think they can treat us like slaves?
Why do they think we cannot survive without them?

If you ask me, it is they who need us.
It is they who cannot survive without us.
It is the corporations who are the slaves and we are the masters.

When I read our constitution, the first three words I see are "we the people."

It is we who control our destiny.
It is we who work and provide for ourselves and our families.
It is we who participate in commerce and trade.
It is we who should be governing and making laws.
It is we who can bring the system down when the system threatens our way of life.
It is we who have drawn a line in the sand.
It is we who have occupied public spaces in the name of justice.
It is we who say "we won't put up with this anymore!"
It is we who want to put things right again.
It is we who want to reclaim the power of our vote.

Without people performing work, there would be no corporations.
So stop telling me to apologize for financial criminals and irresponsible corporations just because they need people to work for them.
They are not entitled to break the law.
They are not entitled to destroy lives.
They are not entitled to bring a nation's economy to its knees.
They are not entitled to escape justice.

It is we who want the law applied to everyone equally.
It is we who want a level playing field where no one cheats their way to the top.
It is we who want a representational government where no one can pay to have a law written in their favor or bribe politicians.

Look around me and what do you see? A city.
A city build by people.

Who's city is it? It's our city.
Who's city? Our city.
Who's streets are these? They're our streets.
Who's streets? Our streets.

We Occupy. And we're staying.

Important Article Shared By Occupy Philadelphia

Now's a good time to get off topic.

This article posted on the Occupy Philadelphia Facebook page has some interesting charts showing the inequalities in our economy. Its all stuff we've heard over and over again, but somehow gets overlooked or scoffed at by Joe Average struggling to pay his mortgage. I liked what it said but I couldn't overlook the disconnect that it highlighted.

Here are the comments i left on the thread on the Occupy Phila FB page:

"My comments regarding this: while I personally agree that these charts show how unfair things are, most Americans consider it a right in this country to be as rich as you can be. However, what the average person is not understanding is that this kind of inequality and the financial crisis of 2008 and beyond was the result of crimes committed by the very rich…"

"…heinous crimes against the people which go unpunished, plus complete control and corruption of the political system. These things need to be explained to people in a simple way or they will dismiss the occupy movement as just a bunch of liberal socialist freaks behaving badly."

"This is why you get complaints such as "why don't you go out and start a business if you don't like how things are." Kind of amazing how average Americans don't realize how badly victimized they really are and how the transgressions of the rich and greedy have affected them directly."


Then I shared it on the news feed and here are the comments I added:

"Let me make one thing clear: These charts make perfect sense to me but I'm not against capitalism or banks or people getting rich. The issue is not who is making money and who is not. The issue is that banks like JPM and Goldman Sachs are STEALING from the people and the government REFUSES to do anything about it. The banks steered the risk of derivatives trading into the public domain while keeping the rewards for themselves, then asked the taxpayers for bailouts when it blew up in their faces."

The connection somehow needs to be made otherwise the mainstream media will succeed in mocking the movement and nothing will change. People are so blind that they can't feel the bankers hands stealing right out of their pockets. They allow this to go on as part of the American Dream. When they wake up, they'll be living in a tent city and will still consider it all to be fair game. Sad. Really sad.

Birth Of Xanadu

This video would go viral if it featured dancing babies or singing cats or some kid falling off his bike and smashing his nuts…



…but it doesn't. Its the story of my latest painting from start to finish, and I'm extremely happy with it. It's also making its public debut in 3 days, with celebration to follow.

Xanadu Lives

Xanadu, 30" x 48", oil on canvas, 2011.

This painting will be on exhibit at the Tenth St Laundromat beginning Saturday 10/1 until Monday 10/31. Be there on the 15th and you can see what I look like drunk.



Take a stroll through my posts over the past 6 months and you'll see each and every step of the process. There's a short film coming soon as well.

Five Miles From Times Square at the Tenth St Laundromat

I'll start out by mentioning that the image on the left of the flyer is one of mine that a) was not going to be included in the show, and b) is at my brother's house. Whatever. What will be shown are 6-7 paintings from the series, Five Miles From Times Square, my painting study of the phenomenon and ecological disaster known as the New Jersey Meadowlands.

If you're reading this there's no excuse for you to not be at this thing on October 15th. Unless, of course you live thousands of miles away and can't afford to travel. If that's the case I'll have a drink in your honor. Seriously, Philadelphia is worth the trip wherever you come from, and this show would just be one more cool thing on your agenda.

If you can make it, expect an art show unlike any you have ever been to. Yes, Virginia, it is in a laundromat. No, Virginia, don't bring your dirty undies. You'll be having way too much fun for that.

I should also mention that I'll be showing alongside my very best friend and a world class painter, Don McPartland. I've known Don for over 20 years and have always been and admirer of his. His work has inspired me in many ways, and I'm always excited to show with him.

I'm looking forward to meeting Carla Hopkins & Nick Gleckman and to hearing Hott Tubb as well. And of course, DJ Jeffrey with The Magic Message will have all the ladies dancing on the dryers before the night is out.