po

While I was in Memphis I caught up with a fraternity brother who lives there. His family has a landscaping business. Anyway I went with him to see several ongoing projects. Two of the projects lead me to make this painting.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The background was the color of the cement used in the back patio area and fountain of a townhouse. The purple dots came from the color of a sidewalk path that connected a house to a basketball court. There’s not much more say about this one other than the fact I liked the color combination.

oo

Sometimes a certain icon keeps popping up in my daily life. The story of this painting begins with rabbit images featured in an art show at Cheekwood Art & Gardens in Nashville. Artist Joseph Peragine chose a white rabbit as he explores the theme of “vulnerability” following 9/11. Also included in the show were images of Sherman tanks. Apparently its design was one that did not do well in tank to tank combat.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

When I arrived back to Memphis, I thumbed through a book I bought at Cheekwood. In it I stumbled across a photo of a sculpture located on the grounds. Sophie Ryder built her sculpture, Crawling Lady Hare, in 1997, when she was an artist-in-residence. It was constructed out of tightly bundled galvanized wire supported by a steel armature.

The following day I met an art professor, my family put me in touch with, over at Rhodes College’s Clough-Hanson Gallery. There was an exhibit of T. L. Solien’s work. Several of his pieces included cartoon-like rabbits. I don’t remember if this one is the show, but it was similar to the ones included in the brochure I picked up. His surreal images depict events in his life.

Some weeks later when I was back in New Orleans I noticed a story about a giant pink bunny sculpture erected on an Italian mountainside. A Viennese group of artists, calling themselves Gelitin (Gelatin until 2005) stated that giant stuffed toy was “knitted by grannies of pink wool.” The idea was to give people the feeling of being the giant, Gulliver. People who have visited the sculphttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifture have been invited by Gelitin to upload photos to the website photo album.

Well having encountered these four instances of rabbits, I decided it was a good symbol for me to represent my evacuation to Memphis. Also, the day I went to Cheekwood, I was trying to get my mind off the fact that Rita was delaying my going back home. The excursion was an additional escape, if you will. For this painting I decided to paint a simplified white rabbit with a green background. The white rabbit was one I first saw At Cheekwood. The green background has to do with the Cheekwood gardens.

This painting begins with a film I saw in Memphis entitled “Forty Shades of Blue.” It was filmed in Memphis and the director was on hand to take questions after the movie. Well, I didn’t like it enough to stay. In fact I hated the movie. In the plot, there was a love triangle with people that just did not interest me. Overall I found the film irritating and depressing.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

That being said, some of the background shots included flickering blue lights. I previously have discussed bokeh/circles of confusion. Well that part interested me. As I mentioned before, my order of canvases, beyond the first eight, did not arrive until the day before I left Memphis to go back home to Metairie.

Back home I saw many roofs of houses covered with blue tarps. Well, that’s the blue I used to create a background color. My composition had a number of variations of that same blue color. This is the first instance where I consciously mixed something from Memphis and something from my return to the New Orleans area as I continued working on these dot paintings. As for the title, it is pure coincidence that "no" (New Orleans) was the title for this content. The title for each of my dot paintings, in this series, is assigned according to its date of completion.

mo

“mo” is another painting based on my day trip to Nashville. My first stop was at The Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The building is large, spacious and modern. There I viewed a group show entitled The Fragile Species: the New Art Nashville. In the show catalog, Director Susuan H. Edwards describes the works in this one sentence:

The Fragile Species: the New Art Nashville brings together the work of twenty-one artists who in various ways address the vulnerability of the body and the transitory nature of life.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

My painting is a reaction to one piece, in the show, that I really liked. It is called Especially Considering Exposure and it is by artist, Barbara Yontz. Specifically I imitated hanging threads with my dots. My colors choices were a result of seeing the show as a whole. Many of the works had a medical feel to them.

Although the exhibit had its theme, my painting concerns my trip to The Frist, one of handful of stops in Nashville. Visiting Nashville was propelled by the fact Hurricane Rita forced closure of roads into New Orleans at a time when I was hoping to return home. It’s not every art exhibit that moves me to create art. However, this one did.

On a side note, this was the same week when I managed to contact my neighbor who was able to tell me my house fine except for some minor roof damage. This was in mid September of 2005.

Cuatro, Cinco, Seis

My small dot paintings are not the only ones that I have in progress. I still have three larger ones that I have not finished. They are part of group of six. In October of 2006 I pulled an all night marathon to finish the first three for the Poydras Home Art Show.

As much as I liked how they turned out, I do not want
to repeat the same process for the second three. So, for the last year the second three have sat in a spot where I am forced to look at them every day. I'm still undecided on how I will finish them.

Cuatro

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Cinco

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Seis

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

lo

lo” was inspired by Paulette’s, a French restaurant, in an old section of Memphis. The restaurant is in walking distance of a movie theater and a performance theater. The interior tile work helped me choose my colors. Anyway I was surprised how quickly my order was served for each course. When I asked about that, my server told me that they know people are anxious to get to a movie or play. I enjoyed the dishes I ordered both times I dined there.



acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

ko

As for this piece, it was based on an art show I saw while in Memphis. The show opened at the University of Memphis Art Museum. It was called “The Perfect Show.” All the pieces were by artists who worked in very detailed compulsive manner of perfectionism. There’s one piece that had black enamel dots that was the specific trigger for this one.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The other interesting point is that this show was originally supposed to show the at the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center in the summer of 2005. However, the CAC did not have enough money to follow through. Anyway, I’m glad I had an opportunity to see it. I went to a program given by the curators of the show who talked about their experiences in pulling the show together.

In painting the dots on this piece, I mixed paint with acrylic polymer gloss; so these dots are translucent. When I finished I thought more about the green mold that plagued folks who had water in their house. I’m glad I did not have to contend with that issue.

New Batch Update

And now for an update on my new batch of dot paintings . . . I posted the thumbnails here already. At this time I am hashing out the color choices for my canvases. Granted this is only the first coat. However as soon as I can narrow down what I intend to do with color, the better. Then I’ll just have to remember which color names I combined to produce what.


26 - 5" x 5" s, acrylic and color pencil on canvas

io

You remember the painting ao depicted the path of Hurricane Katrina? Well this one shows the path of Hurricane Rita. Just follow the middle green dotted line. Although this one slammed southwest Louisiana, it made New Orleans flood all over again. But that's only part of the story of this one.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The storm didn't hit until a weekend. Some friends of mine ended up in Memphis around that time. We ended up going to see "Pretty Persuasion." The film was filmed at the same school as "Donnie Darko." In this one the boys wore blue shirts with their uniforms and the girls wore pink shirts with their uniforms. So that's where some of the colors came from. I don't remember what me choose the other colors. Anyway, so much for that one.

Layered Meanings

Although this group of paintings is based on places and experiences in Memphis, I only completed eight of them while I was still there. Unfortunately the rest of the canvases I ordered did not arrive in Memphis until the day before I left. The rest of the works were created back home in Metairie (New Orleans area).

During the interim, I sketched thumbnails on Post-It notes. As I worked on this group of paintings, my process slowly evolved. Along the way my method did change gradually. I didn’t finish the series until August 9, 2006. The works are ordered according to when they were finished, not in the order of a places visited and/or experiences occurred.

Event though I had my main ideas worked out, I sometimes found myself including places and experiences from New Orleans as well. Just because I start in one direction doesn’t mean I’m only devoted to that one direction. Sometimes the meanings become layered.

ho

Before Hurricane Rita came along, I had contemplated returning home. On the Monday before the storm was supposed to reach Louisiana, a woman at Triple A informed me that roads into New Orleans were already closed. Since I had to stay put, I planned a day trip into Nashville to catch some art exhibits. Wednesday of that week, I drove three-and-a-half hours into Nashville. Besides taking in some museums I traveled to Cheekwood Art & Gardens.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

There are several gardens at Cheekwood. I strolled from one to the next following a map of the grounds. I particularly liked the Japanese garden. It was there that I passed through a green bamboo shelter that is the inspiration for this painting, “ho.” This was the painting that helped me decide what I wanted to do with the rest of the dot paintings in this group.

Between the first two paintings and this one, I had concentrated on the colors and patterns I used rather than attaching a specific place or event to a painting. So this is where I found the general groove for these works. Sure there have been other shifts and experiments since this painting, but I found my footing with this painting.

bo

The day after Katrina hit, the news reports were initially hopeful as I watched CNN in my Memphis hotel room. The New Orleans residents who were interviewed seemed relieved that the storm was not as bad as it could have been. The question then was when would officials say it was safe to start back home.

In the early afternoon I was in the lobby waiting for my turn on one of the computer terminals. I wanted to check my e-mail. Then I heard folks talking about flooding and that it might be 6 months before anyone would be able to go back home.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Back in my room I watched in horror the overhead shots of the city flooded. The only building I recognized was the Southern Yacht Club with its burning kitchen. I kept looking for a shot near my house so I’d know what happened to it. But all I saw were areas of the city that were unfamiliar to me – at least from overhead.

One of the images shown over and over again was a levee break with water continuing to flow into the city. That is what is depicted in this painting. After Hurricane Rita water again flooded the city.

ao

In the past I have posted images of my smaller dot paintings. Now I want to highlight some of them and discuss their inspirations. There’s more to say about them than some others.

“ao” is the first piece from my Memphis paintings. Very simply the line of yellow dots follows the path of Hurricane Katrina. So what’s the significance?


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Well, the night the remnants of Hurricane Katrina hit Memphis the power went out at my hotel shortly after midnight. Power was not restored until 4 p.m. the next day. It was getting quite warm in the hotel. When I drove through town power lines and trees were down. The wrath of the storm certainly was felt up that way. What better way to represent Hurricane Katrina (tropical storm by this point) than to paint the path the storm took that day.

Thumbnails for Next Batch

Although I have not finished the current batch of paintings, I have twenty-one thumbnails for the next group. Here they are. I’m still trying to decide on five more sketches to flesh out my ideas. After that I have nine more batch lists already generated. The ideas come faster than I can paint now. Sales have started to pick up a little. Hopefully next week will bring more sales.

These sketches are only the beginning. I often alter or change the paintings completely as I proceed. Sometimes the experience on one piece affects what happens with the next one. What color I mixed last will sometimes determine which canvas I paint next. No need to waste paint if can help it.

Workshop Demo Art

You may have wondered what I worked on while my workshop students painted their dot artwork. Well, here is the painting that I created while demonstrating my dot art techniques. No, it’s not quite finished. In fact I’m working in reverse process. Usually I add dots after establishing a background color. For the demonstration I wanted to duplicate the way I had the artists working – at least try to do so. Many of them did do a background first in my second workshop.

When I finish it, I will post a photo. In the meantime check out other pieces I started during demonstrations on my demo art blog. These are the ones I finished. My process is not fast. I do not finish a whole piece during a demonstration.


acrylic on canvas, 3.875" x 5.875"

Dot Art Hands On Workshop Part Deux

Thursday night was déjà vu at Mt. Olivet Episcopal Church.
You see I was asked to repeat my dot art workshop since Tropical Storm Humberto scared a bunch of folks off back in September. So again I conducted a hands on dot art workshop with my fellow artists of ARTinA (Art in Algiers). I talked about the artists that influenced my dot art and then showed some examples of my completed works. Then I demonstrated
how to use wood dowels with cotton to paint different
patterns. After that, all of us painted on small canvases that were provided for the workshop. Four folks who missed the last one made it this time.

Look What They Painted!

So I let them loose with the materials and this is what my fellow artists created. I encouraged them to do their own thing. They may not revisit this way of painting, but they did enjoy the workshop.

Watercolor Paintings on Watercolor Canvas

These are my first watercolor paintings done on watercolor canvas. The gesso is created especially for watercolor. It is very easy to pull up paint from this type of canvas. The downside is that if the wrong area gets wet, the painting is vulnerable. To protect the painting spray-fix is used.

“Afire” and “Abloom” were created in the spring of 2004. The rest I made in the summer of 2005. “Afire” and “Aflow” are my two favorites of the six. Anyway, I exhibited all six paintings in a show at the Baton Rouge Archives building. The show was called “Abstrectly speaking.

Although not completely made of dots, I still enjoyed painting these pieces

Aflow

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Aburst

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Agrow

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Aglow

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Abloom

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Afire

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Pause

Honestly I had no real plans to continue making more dot art as of the summer of 2005. In August, just before Hurricane Katrina, I exhibited art in two small group shows. One was in the Louisiana State Archives Building in Baton Rouge. The other one was shown at a gallery know as Three Ring Circus Productions off of St. Charles Avenue downtown. The group consisted of artists who teach. By the summer I was more focused on experimenting with media and techniques I had seen demonstrated.

During the spring of that year I was invited to hang my work at a woman’s shoe store. During 2005, I only had two sales of my artwork and they were both construction wood pieces. One was green with brass tacks and gold chain for hanging. The other one included hooks screwed into several sides of a woodblock.

Now I can press “play.”

Bubble In

It was the last school day of the 2004 - 2005 Year. Actually, it wasn’t even a whole day. The last morning of the school year is set aside for recognizing teacher years of service, retirements and accomplishments. Homeroom teachers stuff envelopes with report cards. Lastly is checkout. That means having all the different departments sign off that keys were turned in, paperwork turned in, etc.

While waiting for all activities to conclude I sketched this. It is also in keeping with the testing bubble sheet theme - see previous post. I drew the circles. Then some I filled in and some I erased. One of my fellow teachers glanced over and expressed disappointment that I wasn’t doing something pretty. I’m just glad I had my sketchbook handy for drawing.


graphite on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"

120 Colors

This color pencil piece, “120 Colors” requires a lot more explanation than most of my works. I’ve divided this post up into parts to help keep my thoughts together:


colored pencil on paper, 21" x 26.5"

Combination
Seven years ago an instructor at a workshop suggested to me that I combine some of processes into one piece. Some folks have given me grief about working in all these styles. Unfortunately for me I go through reactionary phases. I swing from one direction to another one. My fellow artists have told me in recent years they recognize what a I do no matter what I do. Yesterday was a deadline for delivering artwork for a weekend art show. Well, I didn’t want to do dots this time. The new paintings appear on my blog art at random.

So what exactly did I combine in this piece? Well, since I’m posting this artwork here, you know there are dots in it. In this instance the use of dots was inspired by the answer bubble sheets used in LEAP testing (the tests Louisiana students have to pass to graduate). It happened that I started this piece in the March of 2005 during “testing week” at a high school where I was teaching art. When this particular week rolls around homeroom teachers administer the tests. I was a substitute for an absent homeroom teacher. Well, I am no fan of this duty – even if it is primarily reading a script.

To begin this piece I created a grid. Then I drew outlines for my dots – like the bubbled in dots I mentioned. The last elements were some squiggly expressionist lines drawn through the grid. But that was only the set-up of parts.

A Whole Set of Color Pencils
Again and again I have listened to artists talk about their limited palette of colors used creating artwork. Well, at that time I was using my fourth 120- color pencil set. Too often there are colors that hardly or ever get used. Anyway, I was bound and determined to use each and every color for once. I was kind of inspired by a “kitsch” art show I saw in Boston at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

Random Color Choice
In my last two posts I spoke about my interest in working randomly. Well, unlike my other works that include dots, I chose my combination of colors blindly. Specifically I picked out six pencils at a time without looking. Then I filled in each square, containing dots, on my grid. When finished I placed the six in another container before choosing six more. As I completed a round of choosing every color, then I’d start the rotation back to the original container. It took a long time to render the whole piece.

The Reaction
Needless to say both artists and non-artists have been fascinated by this work. Recently someone told me I should do a close-up study of this piece. At this time I have no specific plans for continuing this tangent of my artwork. Here are some close-up shots.

Happy Two Years Old!

Two years ago I had to find out what a blog was all about. First I found an AOL top-ten-blog list. I began exploring examples of blogs. I was looking at a Blogger blog when suddenly I was being asked to create one of my own. OK, I chickened out when prompted with a dialogue box.

Well, I decided to take a tour. That made me comfortable enough to plunge in and start one. I already had photos of my artwork that I had taken with sister’s digital camera. I used them on an AOL website. I had to create it on her Dell computer because the software for an AOL website was not Mac friendly. She loved kidding me about that.

It wasn’t long after that that I bought a digital camera and took more pictures. The camera even had the ability to film video. Since much of my adult art survived Hurricane Katrina and the flood, I was determined to have more of my art online. I figured blogs would a useful vehicle for putting work out there. Oh, I did look into blogging using AOL. However what was available for a Mac user was very limited. Blogger just made it so easy to jump in and make a blog.

Organic Grid

This sketch was completed just before the next piece I'm about to post. It was rendered with a set of Staedtler color pencils. I wanted to compare it to a Prismacolor set of colored pencils. A Prismacolor set is more on the waxy side.

Even though there are no dots, the experimentation with a grid anticipates some of the things that happened in my next finished piece. It was a trial sketch, if you will. It also harkens back to a series of works in which I played with positive and negative spaces. That goes back twenty years. Once in a while I revisit the idea.


colored pencil on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"

More Found Object Art

In the fall of 2004 a print shop went out of business. The owner invited my group of art talent teachers over to gather whatever junk we wanted. One item I found was a plastic container of brass tacks. I brought them to my small classroom. Over the next year I wondered what I could possible do with them. I also collected some gold chain from my co-op gallery that closed at end of 2004. You never know when you'll pick up some neat junk.

And then came the “Not Easel Art” Show. It was the show I mentioned in a previous post that did not include drawings or paintings. I had just worked with tacks. Well now I tried brass tacks. This time I found some odd pieces of wood in the classroom. They were in a box of wood scraps. Each one had a circular hole. I think the pieces supported some kind of pipe at one time.

Anyway, these are two pieces have intrigued people. I decided to make them opposites. One had a hole up and the other one had a hole down. Yes, my titles are usually matter of fact. It helps me to remember what I name my pieces.


Hole Up, brass tacks on wood with chain, 4.5" x 17"


Hole Down, brass tacks on wood with chain, 4.5" x 17"

Random Wood

From the end of 2003 to the winter of 2005, I continued to have sales of the Greek Code paintings. But as far as producing new dot art, I did not. I kept experimenting and trying new directions. The artist who organized the Sofa Art Show continued to organize more shows and invite me to participate in them. Some of those shows had an impact on the new art I created. In 2005 she asked a group of us to create works that did not involve drawing or painting. We had attended a number of artist panel discussions that featured artists who were much more conceptual in their art making. She figured we ought to have a go at being more conceptual.


Nail Order, nails and wood, 4" x 6.625"

I had created a number of grid works over a seven-year-period, so I started with one for the first few of these pieces. To found hardware and wood scraps in my attic and garag. I had turned 40 the previous year and my house was built the same year I was born. So it seemed natural to work with these found. These were extra items just lying around. I even went to my family’s home to see if there were unused wood scraps or hardware that might make interesting artwork.


Silver Circles, tacks on wood, 7.125" x 18.875"

The first piece was a bit boring. I simply nailed nails in a grid. The second piece is where I happened upon the idea of keeping the pattern more random. The environment at school made me embrace working in a random fashion. Working randomlly was more exciting. To my surprise the creation of these works went super fast. To see the rest of the pieces, click on random wood.

Vance Kirkland

Sometimes I happen upon artists whose works relate to what I’m doing in my art. In the spring of 2004, I attended an art educator convention in Denver, Colorado. After an all day bus tour, I spent the following days exploring the city on my own. I attempted to go to The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, but it was not open. The museum was one the art museums listed in an art lover's guide to art museums.

So, then I continued down the street to a state museum. When I was browsing at the gift shop, I ran across several books written about Vance Kirkland’s work. His earlier work resembles the various styles that were popular at the beginning of last century. Later on his interest turned to images from space and he began to use dots for stars. There’s also an Op (optical illusion) Art feel to these later paintings. Well, I just had to buy the books on his work.

Yayoi Kusama

In 1998 I pursued earning my teaching credentials. This meant taking thirty hours of education courses. When I completed the coursework, by the end of 1999, I began to obsess about trends in current art. What was happening that would define 21st century art. My course from 1985 needed some updating. In browsing the art books at Barnes and Noble, I found came across a series of books published by Phaidon. It is called “Contemporary Artists.”

The first book I just happened to discover had artwork that fascinated me. This was before I began working on the first eight code paintings. The artist is Yayoi Kusama and her work (some of her work is visually sexual) happens to include dots. She creates installations that are a combination of feminism, surrealism, pop and minimalism. As I’ve continued to paint the dot paintings, I’ve referred back to her work to spur me forward.

ARTinA Outdoor Art Show

Today I participated in ARTinA’s (Art in Algiers) Outdoor Art Show at Mt. Olivet Episcopal Church in Algiers Point. The show was held in conjunction with the Algiers Point Association (APA) Home Tour. Both events are two days.

Naturally I brought my dot artwork to hang up on the fence. Unfortunately not a single soul asked me about buying any of them. Some folks briefly stopped to look.

One woman advised me to sell my work to people who conduct Lamaze classes. She said that they looked like a good image to help expectant mother concentrate.

Dancing Lights

acrylic on canvas, 30' x 30'

Flashing back to the spring of ’03, I was invited to be in a show called “The Sofa Art Show”. The artist organizing the show instructed all participants that works could not be smaller than 30’ x 30’. Well, normally I avoid making artwork that size because working space and storage space is limited at home. Even in the classroom where I was teaching at the time, space was limited there too. Well, all I had to do was create the one piece and show up for the hanging.

So what did I want to do for imagery? Well, by this point I was wearing glasses for night driving. The glasses helped with making far away signs much clearer. About this time I also started to become more interested in the little blinking dots in the background of movies – that is when a person was in focus in the foreground while the background was out of focus. Because of what was happening with my eyes, I was now more conscious of the effect. So, that led to the subject of my painting circles of light at night.

Only recently did I run across terms for the dot display of lights. Both involve photography. The first word I noticed was circles of confusion. Wikipedia’s explanation is a bit complicated, but the general gist is what interests me. Then I noticed a word at the bottom of the page under See also. The word is bokeh. It comes from the Japanese word “boke” meaning “blur”. Anyway, I don’t want to get too bogged down with this other than to state that it is newer facet of my dot art process.

When this piece hung in the show, I received a lot of positive feedback. Since then I’ve posted this on a website and even on this blog. Several people have been moved enough to write to me a bout it. I did create this at the end of an exhausting school year; so the painting was created in that environment.

A Shift in Patterns

So, does this pattern remind you of any particular film? Maybe if I gave you a choice of the red pill or the blue pill? Does that ring any bells?


Sigma, acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Hopefully by now you’ve guessed, “The Matrix”. By the way it sold not too long after I painted it. When I did this piece I started to imitate the way a string of lights implies motion. In films about Las Vegas casinos there are often flashing signs implying motion. Anyway, this particular painting marked a turning point for the patterns I picked. I had run out of geometric patterns to try; so, I started to look for other shapes.

I do love going to see films, both blockbusters and art-house. During the summer I came up with designs to complete the set of twenty-four. I found them when I watched films during the summer of 2003.

Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures of the remaining works from this series. I didn’t count on them selling the way they did, nor did I figure that I would continue painting in this direction. Before Hurricane Katrina I had seven of them left. Now I only have four left - three sold since I am back. One is from the original four. Another one is from before the one above. And two more were painted after this one.

Before I discuss the series I began in Memphis, I will need to cover some detours works that also had dots in them.

The Greek Code at Anglade-Barthelemy Gallery

Anything before Hurricane Katrina is a dramatic blur these days. So I have to try to piece together some events. Fortunately I kept calendar logs that give me a sense of what was happening in past years. However, I did miss writing events down on some days.

Here are some more of my small dot paintings with Greek names. The picture was taken at Anglade-Barthelemy Gallery, a co-op gallery on Royal Street. I exhibited art there 1997 through 2004 when it closed for good. By the time this picture was taken I had already sold a few from the series.

After using a number of predictable patterns, I became frustrated. What pattern was I going to use next? At this point I was stumped. It was the summer of 2003 when the answer came to me . . .

Alpha, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Theta, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Omicron, Pi, Rho, acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6" each

Little Paintings for Lallybroch Gallery

So, how did I end up painting such small paintings? Well, it all started with a gallery located in Algiers Point called Lallybroch Gallery. The artist organization ARTinA (Art in Algiers), which I belong to, was invited to have a show at the gallery. Because the gallery was small, the artists were asked to bring small artwork for the show.

When I went to the art supply store, I zeroed in on the 6” x 6” size. Similar to the eight pieces I created, I painted dots over a triangle pattern. The paintings below are the first four I painted. In May of 2002 I saw the film “Enigma” which concerns a group of British young people who cracked the Nazi code during World War II. Seeing the film inspired me further in the direction begun with the first eight paintings. I was simply intrigued with patterns as a visual expression, not as a hidden message.

Then I had to find titles for these paintings. I settled on the names of the letters from the Greek Alphabet. They often turn up in our pop culture and I thought they would be appropriate for my new paintings. Thus I named the four: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.

The reception was in early July of 2002. In New Orleans that is a hot and humid time of year. Unfortunately for everyone who attended the opening, the gallery was hot. As I wandered around, my fellow artists and my family were excited about these small pieces. They told me I should do more of them.

When the show came down, none of the works had sold. That didn’t discourage me from painting more canvases that size. Besides the ARTinA Festival was coming up in October and I figured small pieces would be an ideal item to sell . . .


Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, 6" x 6"'s, acrylic on canvas

Code Series: The Second Four

In July of 2002 I finished these four paintings that complete the set of eight. Unfortunately the space, where I was hoping to display the work, is no longer available. Another organization now shows there instead.

There have not had the opportunity to show all eight together. In the spring of 2005, Ele invited me to hang three of the paintings. I have entered the other ones in competitions and other exhibitions. At this time, I have no future plans to paint any more at this size

Code Pink

This won first place in an art show competition.


acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Code Lime

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"