November 29, 2022

I recently returned from 3 weeks in the mountainous region of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Half my time there was spent in volunteer support of international organizations developing potable water projects for small Mayan villages. The other half I spent  with my friend and well-known abstract artist, Clemens Luhmann, at his residence and studio overlooking Lake Atitlan and several extinct volcanoes. It was a wonderful experience learning and collaborating together and several paintings I produced there can be viewed on my “Abstraction” page. I found myself pushing into a more abstract painting style than I’ve previously used- a real creative stretch exercise- and am very pleased with the results!

Climate Cultures is a global network of over 150 artists, curators and researchers who use this online forum to share their responses to our climate change induced planetary predicament.

October 27

As I began to build the imagery in my most recent painting, Solar Flow, I was thinking of renewable energy, and in particular, solar, wind and water power- with solar the penultimate powerhouse and wind and water modified by its primal source of energy. I was in a deeply meditative state as I completed this work and I felt myself expressing the flow of the sun’s light, warmth, and even its gravitational pull on myself and my painting.

Sept. 13

Lately I have been having vivid dreams about a particular steel-hulled sailboat, namely, The R/V Marie Tharp– a 72-foot, steel-hulled, 2-masted sailboat operated by the Ocean Research Project (ORP).  My two latest wax-based paintings, “Dream Sailing” and “Greenland Summer” were inspired by these dreams and the men and women presently onboard conducting vital climate-related scientific research, currently off the coast of Greenland. 

Both paintings, seen below, can also be found on my ‘Abstraction‘ gallery page.

As a member of the Board of Directors of ORP, I often think about our crew and the international group of scientists on board and am proud of their important and exciting work. ORP is included in my list of favorite Charitable Organizations on my Bio Page and you can visit their website or Facebook page to follow their ongoing adventures. 

June 10, 2022

With “No Resistance”, my 12th and final wax-based painting in the “Our Changing Planet” series, I present a glimpse of our future world facing newly discovered invisible threats that are emerging from recently exposed arctic soils.

The melting of the North and South Poles is one of the most well-known consequences of climate change. Scientists are concerned that within the great diversity of bacteria held in the melting ice and exposed soil are “ancestral genes” and bacteria that may cause diseases from which we have no resistance to, and that even our strongest antibiotics will not protect us.

June 3, 2022

Two recent additions to my series “Our Changing Planet” are “Clear-Cut” and “Coral-Reefs”.

“Clear Cut” depicts a previously healthy forest now devastated from both clear-cutting all the trees and the understory vegetation. Clear-Cutting is a method of harvesting lumber that indiscriminately destroys entire wooded ecosystems and obliterates the natural habitat of endangered wildlife. This process also reduces biodiversity which leads to harmful sedimentation and nutrient leakage into nearby streams and rivers.

My other recent piece in this series, “Coral-Reefs”, illustrates the tragic loss of this essential ecological treasure and one that roughly 25 percent of ocean-based fish depend on. Because of the rich diversity of life found in coral reef habitats, they are often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea.” Scientists estimate that because of rising ocean temperatures, acidification and pollution, that more than 70 percent of all coral reefs will die within the next twenty years.

May 18 2022

“I am committed to practicing Charitable Art”

In the latest development of my growing commitment to the “charitable art” concept,  I am now offering free prints of my art to anyone making a charitable donation to one of the organizations I support. 

As part of a special, limited arrangement, anyone who makes a new donation to one of these charitable organizations will receive, at no cost, a high quality canvas print of any painting in these galleries on my website:

• Our Changing Planet
• Abstraction
• Flowers

By simply making a direct donation to any one of these vital and reputable charities, I will send you a ready to hang print of your choice in one of 3 different sizes. Of course, I am counting on your generosity when making the donation and request that you contact me for a chat so I can help you decide which charity on my list is the best fit for you and which size print will be most appropriate. 

I am also open to providing one of these canvas prints for a “silent auction” at a different charity you are involved in if its mission resonates with me.

March 3, 2022

Imagine the year is 2122. One hundred years into the future. Space vacationers can now take a submersible cruise through the below-surface ocean on Jupiter’s smallest moon, Europa. It’s an icy environment rich in bioluminescent sea life and strange alien creatures. The travel pamphlet for this tourist destination might look something like this:

February 24, 2022

My latest piece in the ‘Our Changing Planet‘ series is simply named “Cow.” It is a quizzical portrait of the animal’s face, seeming to ask you to consider the environmental impacts of our food production processes. I don’t mean to imply that raising animals on traditional, family owned, small-scale and sustainably operated farms is an issue. Rather, it is the huge multinational firms practicing intensive animal farming on a massive scale that are producing a significant amount of the methane gas proven to increase global warming.

January 20th 2022 –

Earlier this month, just after the calendar flipped to 2022, I decided to broaden my artistic range of subjects and create a series of large, wax-based paintings on poster board. I call this series “Our Changing Planet” and will be adding 6 new works to the existing 6 over the next several months in a new section of my art website. 

The series started with an expressionistic piece called, “Dragonfly Sunset” which provides a glimpse of just one of the large number of “indicator species” that have witnessed significant losses of population. Next was “carbon vault”- my take on the value of “proforestation” , a practice which recognizes old growth forests (and trees well over fifty years old) as better carbon sinks than younger fast growing trees. 

Another of my paintings is entitled “Remembering Ross” which depicts the Ross Ice Shelf of Western Antarctica. Half a mile high and the size of France, some portions are melting at an accelerating rate and immense tunnels that look like caves from the shoreline are releasing ice melt from deep inside this massive ancient structure.

The wax-based painting “Jellyfish” reflects on the fact that, while rising ocean temperatures and overfishing are devastating already threatened sea life, there is an opposite but equally detrimental effect on jellyfish as populations grow at explosive rates and upset the delicate balance of ocean ecosystems.

“Kelp Reforestation” is another painting in this series and, being an important staple of many NW coast peoples, the continuing loss of the kelp forests from northern California up into British Columbia is just one in a series of cascading events precipitated by warming oceans. In this painting I attempt to heighten awareness that, as bacteria loads increase, starfish populations decline and the feeding habits of sea urchin change to devouring the living kelp forests themselves.

Like the old growth forests, I believe we can work together to save these kelp forests, as well as the complex webs of life they support. All the works in the “Our Changing Planet” series communicate my concerns and address our common interest in essential and achievable conservation efforts.