3' x 4' enamel on wood

Through a window that contradicts spatial rationality, dashes of brightly colored enamel form a figure emerging from a swirling indigo background. The marriage celebration of mass and energy radiates in high contrast.

24" x 30" oil on canvas

Inspired by John Keats poem Lamia: Striped like a zebra, Freckled like a pard, eyed like a peacock

54" x 54" oil on canvas

A duet of saxophonists intertwine as they merge into their instrument in a Gordian Knot of Be Bop.

4' x 6' oil on canvas

Intimately realistic, larger than life figures, cropped on all four sides, create continuation, a temporal quality that carries the fluid lines of the dancers into yet-to-be-imagined realms of animated emotions.

4' x 4' oil on canvas

Across a misty break in time, lovers cross paths in a confluence of anachronistic cultural styles. Longing can’t bridge the gap that separates them. The heart wants resolution, but irony is the only solace.

48" x 60" oil on canvas

20" x 24" oil on canvas framed

4' x 6' oil on canvas wood framed

When Cirque du Soleil was just beginning in its big blue and gold tent next to the Santa Monica Pier, I became friends with Amelie, one of its French acrobats. She was very excited about getting involved in avant-garde art projects and wanted to do one with me. We set up a photo session at Artist Susan Murphy's studio in Venice and spent the day shooting. The results were the inspiration for Leather and Lace. Years later, Amelie sent me a single of her singing in a French punk rock band.

60" x 48" oil on canvas

72" x 14" oil on canvas

60" x 48" oil on canvas

54" x 54" oil on canvas

An eight-pointed star based on the Golden Mean lies embedded deep within the cubist structure, holding the otherwise chaotic energy in dynamic symmetry. Jazz captured the fast pace of the modern life and kept it human and soulful, wresting the era from the grasp of robots.

oil on wood with 3D padauk frame

Janus moves in opposite directions simultaneously. The concept of progress is always negated by her duel nature, yet the ideas of unity and symmetry are always intact.

60" x 48" oil on canvas

4' x 4' oil on canvas

Oil on canvas 52” x 34”

24" x 24" oil on canvas

40" x 12" oil on canvas

As a boy, I thought cowboys were really cool. I dressed Western style and wanted to be a gunslinger. I could see times were changing. The cultural imagination was shifting frontiers from the range to outer space. I was determined to live in the heartbeat of the new era. Elvis, who also played Indians and cowboys, represented the old guard. Although he was once my hero, the King of Rock 'n' Roll had to go. In this symbolic Oedipal moment, Space Boy confronts Elvis in his Charo garb with futuristic technology, but the King is reluctant to surrender his throne.

18" x 12" oil on canvas

60" x 20" oil on canvas

6' x 4' oil on canvas

24" x 24" oil on canvas

I had lived in my apartment on San Vicente in Santa Monica seven years when, during a photo shoot there with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench told me that Raymond Chandler had lived in that space. Growing up watching late night TV with my dad gave me an appreciation for LA’s Noir genre that extended beyond the dark mysteries to give me a connection with him that eluded us in other areas.

20" x 20" oil on canvas

36" x 36" acrylic on canvas

Looking out over Paris from atop Sacre Coeur always creates a time warp. A vivid past continues as an overlay over the modern city that thrives in contemporary terms, still setting the pace in fashion and style. This painting is based on a photo I shot of Renee Russo at the opening of the Fiorrucci store in Beverly Hills. Her faraway look captures my deep longing to gaze out over the City of Lights.

20" x 20" oil on canvas

As captain of the bee football team in high school, I didn't exactly fit the profile of a visual outsider. With the Vietnam War raging, I gave serious thought to the overly macho posturing of the US and found it excessive. When I first heard Jim sing "Break on Through to the Other Side," I was sure I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had an exhibition in Jim and Pamela's La Cienega Themis Gallery. Soon after, they asked me if I would live in their Topanga Canyon home and watched their dog Sage. During that period, I was studying film and Surrealist poetry at CSU San Francisco and would fly north to meet my professors on a regular basis. Jim's interest in Paris' literary scene led to long talks about poets there during the 20's. Next thing I knew, Jim's selling the house, moving to Paris to become a writer. That was the last time I saw him.

12" diameter acrylic on vinyl

I was driving along the coast to Waimea on the North Shore of Oahu when I heard on the radio that Kurt had shot and killed himself. Because reports had come out of Rome of an attempted suicide days earlier, the news wasn't shocking as much as it was just sad. He had made so many breakthroughs in terms of expressing pure emotion. That's what I wanted to capture in his portrait, a lost pioneer in the realm of the heart.

24"x 24" oil on canvas

Walt Disney may have been responsible for creating the exuberation of the Atom Age, but John Kennedy took it to its peak. I was excited about the future being promised to my generation. When Kennedy was shot, that vision ended and the Vietnam era began. I feel nostalgic for that infectious optimism and the dream before it turned into a nightmare.

20" x 20" acrylic on canvas

In a vortex of swirling icons, I often conflate the impression of images that have just sped by with ones approaching. Super heroes and villains arise and fade, leaving only stamps of their images as symbols of what they represented. With everyone carrying cameras that also make phone calls, we are now in a rising sea of images. Pictures that become icons are becoming rare. New ideas require branding to be retained. Iconomorphing is a way to bypass the steep climb of recognition, directly expressing the deep love in the heart of all creation.

12" x 12" ink on canvas print