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Riccobono's Peppermill Restaurant is a local restaurant that I frequented before Hurricane Katrina. Upon my return to the New Orleans area, I drove around with my list places. I marked off what was open. When I rode by the Peppermill, I noticed kitchen equipment outside in front. After some time the restaurant re-opened. The inside had been redone. Besides some dark greens and reds and browns, there were some murals on the walls across from the front entrance. They depicted columns and archways with Italian cypress along a hillside.




acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The murals and décor inspired this painting. The background is made up of colors from the curtains, chairs and walls. I then painted Italian cypress with a light blue background I saw in the mural. Originally I had an archway framing everything. However, it became problematic. So, I eliminated it. This is the last piece in this batch.

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Back in April I wrote about a friend who visited me and brought me a metal lizard with brightly colored dots on it. Well, the day she came, she wore a blouse that was a pastel derivation of red-orange – I guess that’s how I’d best describe the color. In the course of correspondence she had talked about a blanket she made her grandson. It had bubbles and rubber ducks
on it.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Thus you have the visual ingredients for this painting: the background color, bubbles and ducks. I figured combining these elements would be a fun way to remember her visit. Working on the composition took some thought. This was a fun piece to paint.

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As I stated in my last post I explored Blogger’s Top Ten List when I first started using Blogger. I quickly found a blog called Google Video of the Day (later GoogleTube Video of the Day). Each day at least one new video was posted. Readers were also encouraged to submit videos they found and site creator Michael Martine would credit videos suggested. Then in March of 2006 I was asked to participate as a team blogger on the site. This lasted until May when Michael decided to return to a solo act.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

This painting concerns the feel of the site during that period. I used the colors and a few of the Internet smiley graphics that appeared at the time. Later on the re-designed since that time. Unlike my other dot paintings this one is a lot more specific in appearance. But then again, someone out there might make an individual interpretation I don’t expect. It’s happened before.

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When I first started blogging back in October of 2005, I looked at a number of blogs including the ones on the Blogger’s Top Ten List. It was at that time I first encountered Google Video and became excited about the videos that were uploaded. Soon I was creating blogs to highlight videos I found. For these blogs I used a design called “Moto” which came in three versions: green, gray and pink. When I pruned back my number of blogs, I deleted them. They became more work than fun.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

This painting has to do with my enthusiasm for video online when I started blogging. While working with my own design, I combined the colors from the “Moto” designs. In making this painting I am highlighting a shift that occurred in my online experiences.

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One of the last days I spent in Chicago, I made a day trip to the Ukrainian Village. One of the places I visited was the Ukrainian National Museum. A woman took me on a tour of the museum and explained some of the history of the Ukrainians who settled in Chicago. At the conclusion of the tour, I bought some wooden Easter eggs that were decorated with roosters.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The stylized brush strokes used on the eggs provoked me to do an interpretation using dots. I simplified the plumage on my rooster image and came up with my own background color. This one ended up being one of my favorites of this group of dot paintings. Many people have told me how much they like this painting.

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My painting is derived from renovations made to a local club after Katrina. As a child I spent a lot summers there swimming. The place has lots of memories for me.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

For this painting I used the greens I saw, but I didn’t worry about picking up any specific design. This is kind of a sequel to the red and yellow rug piece, which I consider of breakthrough work. There are certain pieces that surprise in good way.

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In July of 2006, I attended an art guild banquet at Smilie’s Restaurant. After the meal and the officer installation, names were pulled for the vases with flowers. The bouquets of flowers were tied together with ribbons. I won one of the vases.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

The ribbons became a souvenir of that night. The ribbons inspired me to make this painting. I took the colors of the striped ribbon and created my own striped pattern.

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After playing cards, I met my sister, my two aunts and my uncle for dinner at Dick and Jenny’s. We went early since the place doesn’t take reservations. The restaurant is located at 4501 Tchoupitoulas (chop-i-two-lass) near Napoleon Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. Dick and Jenny Benz based their restaurant on ones they like from this area and abroad. The building is a mid-nineteenth century barge-board-cottage that was formerly a grocery store and later on a poboy shop. The walls inside are covered with dinner plates bearing the names of the founding customers of the restaurant.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

As you might have guessed from my painting, the walls are orange. As for the design, it is a decorated dinner plate made of dots. This is not based any specific plate, but a general symbol for all the plates.

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Several times during 2006 a cousin of mine had several trips to the hospital. During one of her stays, I happened to visit when my mother’s two sisters were visiting. My cousin asked that I join them in a game of “Crazy Eights.” It’s been a while since I played. So, I had to re-learn the game. It’s not often I’ve had a chance to play cards lately.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

For this painting I decided to use the four suits that appear on a set of cards: clubs, diamond, hearts and spaces. I also managed to squeeze some crazy eights in there. For this painting I kept to mostly red and black. The trick was trying to make them contrast one another without getting too dark.

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My family enjoys trying out new restaurants in the New Orleans area. For my birthday in 2006, we went to Fulton on 7, which is located in the Wyndham Riverfront New Orleans Hotel. The place had recently undergone a renovation. Anyway we enjoyed dining there.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

When I walked around a bit, I noticed variances in grays in the lobby, restaurant and restroom. The artworks in the restaurant served as accents of color. In the painting I had several nuances of gray. Then for my image I put a still life in front of a window. I used bright colors to depict the fruit. Again, I was after the feel of the place.

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In June of 2006 a friend from Arizona visited me at the Friends of Rivertown Fine Art Gallery in Kenner, Louisiana. She brought me a gift. It was a metal lizard that had dots on it. She had seen it and thought of me and my artwork. Well, it hangs prominently in the powder room of my home.



Well naturally I had to make a painting to remember the occasion. Sure I have the lizard, but I wanted to make a dot painting too. I decided to just work from memory since I wanted to make a painting my way. Keeping the spirit the object I created the painting below.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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The 2006 National Art Education Convention was in Chicago. The Hilton Chicago was the main hotel for a majority of convention events. The lobby, meeting rooms, ballrooms and connecting corridors were all very ornate. The hotel is loaded with eye candy.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

When I decided to make an image about the convention
I honed in on an elegant red carpet that had a flowery gold pattern. I set about to capture the spirit of this carpet that decorated one of the large meetings rooms. Yes, this one turned out very bright. Several people have told me how much they like this piece.

This painting title highlights the flaw in my title system. It repeats "oo." However it is under the "New Orleans" grouping versus the "Memphis" grouping.

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In June of 2006, I attended the wedding of a fraternity brother who lives in the Jackson area. The wedding took place in a Methodist Church. Now I’ve been to my share of weddings and I’ve seen various traditions of attire. In this wedding, the groom and groomsmen all wore white. What was interesting is that none of their tuxes included ties. All of them had that “priest/reverend-like collar.”


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

One project, I have been wanting to do, was to work with very light pastel colors. Here was my chance to do so. In this painting I depicted the collar I noticed at the wedding. Having created several dark paintings in a row, I was ready to paint a bright one.

The order of my dot paintings is based upon when they are completed even if I work on several at the same time. As long as I have to mix colors used in several of the works, I tend to work on them together. Besides I sometimes need to let the dots dry on one while I work on another one.

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In June of ’06 I went to a screening of an “Inconvenient Truth.” Even before seeing it, I had read discussions about whether global warming had contributed to the severe hurricane season in 2005 or whether it was just part of the natural cycle of more active hurricane seasons. What surprised me was the discussion of the polar ice caps and rate at which they were said to be melting. Since I do live in the New Orleans area, that includes some parts below sea level, this issue hit home.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Well I felt compelled to represent the what I had seen in one of my dot paintings. I took a chart of rising temperatures and translated it into an abstraction using dots. Several folks have interpreted this image as a skyline from a city – including the person who bought the painting.

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This piece starts with the film “Night Watch.” I loved that this film had its own version of a vampire story, including a different world. In particular, there is a certain unconscious state shown in the film that inspired me visually. In one particular scene, a boy falls backwards as his eyes leave orange trail paths. That is what led me to create this image.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

After painting a dark background, I simplified eye shapes and added trails of dots that followed both eyes. This painting documents my variation of dot sizes. Following this painting I began experimenting more with dark colored backgrounds.

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While I was in Chicago I saw the exhibit “Girodet: Romantic Rebel” at The Art institute of Chicago. The show featured the works of Anne-Louis Girodet de Rousssy-Trioson. Many of the large paintings in the show included reclined figures.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

When I created this painting I decided to make an abstraction of a reclined figure. I rendered my abstraction with colors used to promote the show. Imitating Girodet’s work I had a light source illuminating the figure.

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In the spring of 2006 I went to a special screening of Steven Soderbergh’s “Bubble.” Soderbergh was on hand to take questions after the movie. The film concerns two workers at a doll factory. One is a young man and the other is an older woman. Their friendship is changed when a young woman is hired. There is a murder.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Anyway, the older woman in this has a facial expression that is very similar to the ones on the dolls’ faces in the fiilm. There are two scenes in which a blue spotlight shines on the older woman’s face. That is the focus of my painting. I wanted to capture the feeling of the epiphany scene, if you will. I wasn't worried about attaining a likeness of the actress. I just wanted to communicate those two moments. Also, "Bubble" was a digital film.

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Almost five years ago when I attended an art educators convention in Chicago, I was not able to book a room in the main hotel. In fact up until two weeks before the convention I had not heard back from a service that was supposed to find me a room. An orthopedists convention had complicated matters when it chose to switch its convention from New Orleans to Chicago. My understanding was that there were 80,000 of them versus the almost 5,000 art educators. Anyway, I ended up at the downtown Hampton Inn. It was a five-minute ride from the main hotel.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Lucky for me, the hotel was close to a wide variety of eating establishments. So, I did have a chance to try a variety of places nearby without having to taxi anywhere. Since the main hotel was a distance away and the March weather was so cold, I spent a lot more time at the hotel in the evenings. That brings me to my colors for this painting. They are comprised of the variety of greens I noticed in the Hampton Inn’s lobby, breakfast area and computer room. I combined colors to make this piece.

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In May 2006 I traveled with some artists to see a show of Georgia O’Keefe’s work at the Mississippi Museum of Art. This show was a little different in that it included correspondence with conservator Caroline Keck. The show focused on their relationship and her impact on O’Keefe’s art.

Being a fan of O’Keefe’s work, I had to create a dot painting after the show. Borrowing a yellow-green color, I spotted in one of her works, I painted an exaggerated abstraction of a flower. I kind of just went my own direction.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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Another exhibit I visited at the Chicago Cultural Center, while attending the art educators convention in Chicago, was “Los Carpinteros.” This show was by a collaborative group of Cuban artists that creates a wide variety of artworks including installation art. Several pieces in the show were rather whimsical, i.e., a porcelain couch with stove burners, porcelain stairs with stove burners, a large wooden hand with drawers, etc.

Anyway, for this painting I was inspired by the teal color of a table that contained a shallow pool for ice that would melt and re-freeze. When I rendered this painting with dots, I implied drawers with knobs – based on several sculptures containing drawers in the show. Before leaving the building I bought a catalog for each show I saw.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"