“Pumpkins”
Digital photos
2025
I bought a bunch of pumpkins to decorate my spa for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I like to use elements of nature to celebrate these holidays. The Holidays came and went but the pumpkins didn’t rot and I couldn’t bare to throw them out. So I asked my assistant to pile them all on my table in my art studio with the hope I would paint a few pictures of them before it was too late. Well, I did. But I also took these photos which definitely express my way of seeing beauty in late fall and winter.
“3 Dimensional Studio”
Digital photograph
2024
“3 Dimensions” might seem like a misnomer for a photograph that appears essentially flat. It is in fact a painting (the orange one) sitting in front of another painting (blue) on my canvas covered painting bench.
But in another way of thinking about it, the 3 parts of the photo show 3 distinctly different kinds of reality. And yet it works as a single composition.
Usually photographs of artist’s works in the studio show the art works as objects in a space such as a studio or workshop. Here, they work together along with the workshop itself on equal footing to present a multidimensional vision of the studio.
“Self Portrait”
iPhone photograph
No size
2024
This was shot with my IPhone And then modified slightly with the phone’s digital tools. I darkened the shadow and reduced the hue saturation to make it look more washed out.
It is a shadow of me, of course.
“Sculpture Story”
Digital photo shot with iPhone
2024
This is a photo of one of my sculptures. The sculpture is a woman’s torso and legs without a head or arms. It is wax and attached to a wooden plank with a piece of tie wire which can be seen protruding from the top of the figure.
The little figure would not stand up on its own anymore because of the warm temperature causing the wax to soften. As I tried to document the sculpture for this website, it slumped into a corner of the studio. I was struck by the impression of vulnerability and strength. I moved the shadow over to encroach on the scene. Then I turned the plinth to cleave the composition at an almost 90 degree angle from the bottom of the composition making it more of an abstract component than just the edge of the plinth. After I shot it I used the phone’s filters to deepen the shadows a bit which highlighted the figure’s volumes just a touch.
I could have put this in the section on sculpture. But for me, this photo is at least as powerful if not more than the sculpture itself. So I’m putting it here, in the photo section of my works.
“Sculpture, pedestal and the shop”
Digital photo
2024
I shot this photo on my IPhone and then modified it in various ways with the tools readily available on the phone. At first I was attempting to document the sculpture. But I quickly realized that there was something else going on here. My creative drive was to make a compelling image and leave the documentation to subsequent photographs.
What makes this a work of art rather than a document is that the image is the message … not the subject in it. This is the same conundrum for wildlife photographers. The subjects of their photography are so compelling in themselves and of such curiosity to their audience that the question of whether their photographs are art is hardly ever even a question. But once in a while their photographs become more art than documentation of the subject. There is no reason they can’t be both, of course. These concerns are not necessarily at cross purposes. And one is not necessarily diminished by the other. Michelangelo’s David is often seen on the cover of many a college text book on anatomy. But this is rare and not even a thing to strive towards in my mind. What is worth some effort is understanding the difference in order to deepen the understanding and joy of what one is looking at…and why. Understanding and knowing are inherently joyful as well as uncomfortable and even painful at times. But even these particular unpleasantries are more tolerable if based on knowing and understanding.
So here we are … sure … its a good sculpture. Enjoyable to look at. But look at that interplay of grays between the figure and the background. The interplay of the curved lines of the figure and the architectural shapes and lines of the background also fun to explore. The whole thing ends up creating a wavering of space and dimension simply not possible with the sculpture by itself. These visual dynamics either succeed for you or not. But in any case they are working towards that in a manner that is art and art of the 2d sort made by a camera and seen here on an illuminated screen (its never even been printed on paper to date.). And that, to my mind, makes it a work of art … not a document of a work of art.
“Sleeper in the studio”
Digital photograph
2024
“Chiang Mai Temples”
Digital photo
2022
I made the long journey to a city in the north of Thailand known for its historical vibe and particularly dense cluster of temples in the heart of the city known as “Old Town.” It is particularly popular among Western tourists who prefer a bit of culture as opposed to the beach and party crowd that tends to head south. And indeed it is difficult to walk more than 50 meters without encountering a temple. Most are still active community centers of genuine worship by locals. A few are in complete disrepair but have not yet achieved the dignity of a ruin. And all manage to accommodate the overwhelming presence of tourists there mostly to see the beauty of the temples.
And indeed they are beautiful. But to no fault of their own or the artists who create and maintain them, they become boring. You can see the strain of interest on the faces and body language of the visitors. To maintain genuine interest and delight beyond a few temples becomes just too great especially under the un-air-conditioned tropical heat. Sooner or later we all end up in the cool glass climate controlled confines of a cozy coffee house sipping on a trendy latte or matcha brew wondering why and how we came all this way only to lose interest so quickly.
I can’t claim to speak for anyone but myself, but I think the answer is that we have forgotten to forget. And that’s where these garbage bags come in. These forlorn clumps of human refuse remind me to let go of culturally accepted norms of beauty … so that the beauty of the temples can more deeply seer into my soul rather than glance off like so many items on a checklist. Yep… been there … seen it.
But did I really see it? Of course I can’t experience the temple the way a Buddhist does and as a tourist I can’t possibly use the temple as a local would: to go make merit, or to meditate on any of the many deeply spiritual Buddhist sutras or pay homage to a temple monk. Those activities would be enhanced by the beauty of the temples and done with sincerity would propel a community to vest a place of worship with as much beauty as it could muster. And part of community is accepting and building upon community accepted standards of beauty. It is in fact a language that helps communicate to members and outsiders that this is who we are and what we are about.
But like any language it stays alive by finding a balance between maintaining traditions and at the same time staying soft enough to allow for change and addition and to respond to a changing world. And one can not add new layers to a language, even a language of beauty, unless one first learns it. You can forget something you don’t already know. That would be ignoring which is something completely different.
I could not have taken these photos of garbage and seen the beauty in them had I not looked at a lot of temples here in Chiang Mai and spent many hours in the temples of Western Art: museums, galleries and yes … even a few Cathedrals and churches.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see these photos as inspired by the artistic languages of modern art movements shaped by artists like Mark Rothko, Hans Hoffman and a whole school of American artists known for their quiet spiritualism such as Arthur Dove, Edward Hooper and Georgia O’Keeffe.
But did it work? Was my interest in going back to look at more temples reignited by taking some carefully composed photos of garbage? No, not exactly. But that may not be the right way to measure success. What did happen was a renewed excitement to find beauty wherever it might be and then become genuinely excited when stumbling upon a temple rather than moving down a list of noted “must see” locations. But even more telling, my patience to sit around sipping coffee was usurped by my desire to get to the studio and start painting. I have my own community after all, and in my opinion they desperately need new layers of beauty to be laid down on rapidly calcifying tired ways of seeing and experiencing beauty. In fact, many articulate voices are crying out that beauty is dead. It may be, but that just means it needs to be revitalized, not drive a stake of cynicism through its heart.
“Grief”
Digital photo
2019
My mother passed away in 2019. I returned to my hometown of Harrisburg PA to help my family with practical matters and to grieve. In front of my childhood home where she died is a small pond with an overflow culvert pipe to ensure the water never overflows the driveway which acts as a damn. The pond freezes over most winters and was always a source of aesthetic fascination for me.
Most of my photography involves people interacting with my art or my sculpture interacting with my paintings. Now that we all have smart phones with powerful cameras photography has become more complex than when I got my first camera 40 years ago. Among other things, one can take pictures with reckless abandon since there is no limit and no cost. For younger readers, in the old days each picture was a piece of film on a roll. When the roll was used up it had to be taken out of the camera and delivered to a place where the film would be developed and then actual photographs made from the developed film. It was expensive and time consuming.
“Beijing Family”
Digital photo
2017
I think 2017 will go down in history as the pinnacle of this latest round of Chinese society. There was greater prosperity then than at any time in the last hundred years and certainly a lot more than when I was there in the mid 1980’s. But even then change was in the air. I remember sitting at an outdoor cafe in a fashionable neighborhood of Beijing. As evening came on there was a distinctive chill that came along with a dry cool wind. My Chinese friends said that it was typical of early fall to feel the weather shift this way….suddenly and with more than a little tinge of portending the coming of winter. But I couldn’t help but feel that there was more about to change in China than the weather.
This young family was making a good living selling jewelry on line. They were kind enough to let me snap this picture as they sat with their child at their living room table in their snapping high rise condominium. I’ve lost touch with them, but I’m including this photo here on my website as art because it says so much more than a typical snapshot of my friends. As China enters a period of deep and unsettling challenges, I hope they have found a way to continue to thrive.
“Beijinger”
Digital photo
2017
I shot this in a prominent shopping center in Beijing at what was in my opinion the peek of China’s modern era. This handsome young Western man was gigantic, sleek and clearly inspired by a famous Picasso painting which added another level of intrigue for me. In front of him an attractive young Chinese woman struts by and a few people can be seen in the reflection of the gigantic glass window covering the ad.
The Seated Harlequin 1923 - Pablo Picasso
“Studies”
Various photographs
1996-2006
Each of these photos was used as the primary “sketch” or “study” for a painting. In many cases you can even see paint on the surface of the photograph. There are many other photographs that I used for paintings but these came to hand recently so I am adding them to the site now as a group. I may add more later.
Very early in my use of the camera around 1994 I discovered that I actually composed and “found” the painting in the process of doing the photo shoot with my models. These were usually rarefied appointments because even then in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s everyone’s time was valuable and attention spans were short so I had to work fast.
I did everything. I set the scene. Arranged the lighting. Worked the camera. Arranged the models. Kept the conversation going. Made the tea. Kept the studio warm enough or cool enough. I supplied or chased down props. And then prayed to all the gods that there was at least one shot in the camera that was useful in making a painting.
But even before seeing the film I knew if I had “found” a painting or not. There was usually a moment an hour or so in when everything came together and something beyond my intentions would emerge. I often had some idea of what I wanted to create at the beginning, but this would often evolve during the shoot into something delightfully more beautiful and interesting.
Sometimes the photos that excited me the most were the least interesting as photographs. And sometimes there would be a photograph in a roll of film that was so good it was almost embarrassing to paint it. And with a few models I could hardly take a bad shot.
The other thing that is surprising to me even now is that sometimes I do not get around to making a painting from a photograph for many years. For example, one of the photographs here features an olive skinned woman reclining on a table with white sheets surrounding and partially enveloping her. I shot that in 1997 but did not make the painting until 2023.
It’s now 2026 and I still think about making paintings from some of these old photos.
The models in all of these shots are “modeling.” They aren’t doing anything except being alive in my studio and displaying themselves in a certain way so that I can paint them. This may sound like no big deal. But I think it is. For the most part paintings of people are paintings of people doing something. In many cases they are just sitting to have their face preserved for posterity … a portrait. And many others are pretending to enact part of a story or are a stand-in for an analogy or some kind of rubric: the 4 seasons, the River gods of the Tiber, Washington crossing the Delaware River or other such truck. But my models are unabashedly just there. Some are a little more self conscious of the fact that they are “models for an artist.” But the best ones are simply there.
Click an image to open the lightbox gallery
