Just lost

Sometimes he'd get lost in his thoughts. This time he decided he was just lost.

god

He told us that God was like me only bigger and more experienced. I decided that just wasn't big enough, and besides, I know me too well.

Inflexible

It's not that he was being inflexible, he just preferred things rigid and immovable.

Formalities

It wasn't necessary for us to oblige the formalities of a slow and thoughtful courtship. We knew at once that we would grow old together.

This Place

As I looked around, I asked myself, 

how in the hell did I get into this? 

More importantly, how am I going to get out?

Content to Be

With all the talk of tsunamis, terrorists and the coming eminent financial ruin of the entire known world, Karl was content to just BE.

Emotional Hoarding

It's an addition for emotional hoarding, he said. When you run out of room to stuff things, you just add on.

Sticky Stuff

This is the stuff that makes me stick. It holds me here and keeps me safe, I said, as I carelessly cut away it's fibers.

Keeps it Locked Up Inside

Keeps it locked up tight so that no one can see what is inside.

Distance

Distance is how long it takes for me to decide whether or not that is the place I have the energy to get to.

Everyone Likes My New Hair

"Everyone likes my new hair" he said. I thought it was strange that he thought his hair was so important. I think someday he'll look back and wish he had spent time with some of his other more admirable qualities.

Secret Things

This is where I keep the things I hold close to my heart 

when my heart gets too full to hold it all.

Sounded Good at the Time

He heard this really smart man in a wheelchair talk about how the stars were made and about black holes and crooked time. It all sounded good, but later he forgot about the man and the stars and the black holes and returned to things less cerebral.

Tears

Tears were in short supply these days. It wasn't that he was saving them for any special occasion, it just seemed that he'd used most of them on his children.

Finding Lost Places

There's this place at the end of a long and curvy road that was always difficult to find. Every time he tried to go there he'd get lost and find someplace altogether new. He started to believe the place wasn't even real, that perhaps looking for it was the only way to find all those other great places.

Sculptures

In late 2009, Grand Rapids Michigan was host to the 1st annual Artprize competition. For a few short weeks artists from all over the world converged on the downtown area and contributed to the largest art show of it's kind. I entered a sculpture that was an amalgamation of mediums and styles that I have used and enjoyed, carved gourds, stretched canvas over panels and my brightly colored acrylic paintings. This was the result.

My next piece is similar in technique but will certainly take on a meaning and personality of it's own. It's almost certain that I will enter the contest again this year but I am still undecided about whether this will be my entry, either way, here it is as I have imagined it.

Monster Seed

Broken Stuff

Most of what he had was broken. The stuff that wasn't broke, he knew would be broken soon so he turned his attention to the things that he was sure would last forever.

I Am

I am chipped paint on an old barn, the sole of a worn out dress shoe discarded in a dark closet. I am the imprint of smeared lipstick left on a dirty coffee cup. The conversation was great... but now it's over.

Dendall

It's been a long winter. Trying to find the time and space to finish projects has been a challenge. Here is the story of Dendall I promised to paint last year. 

It looked so good to Dendall He just couldn't help but squeeze it.