I was pleased to discover that my Into the Wilderness was hung in the place of honor at Ouch My Eye. This photo was taken from the sidewalk, where you get a great view of my goats.
These goats do get around. 
This painting, entitled No Reason Why, is a portrait of a dilapidated house on Church Hill in Richmond. The house had been abandoned with all of the previous owner's possessions still inside. It is one of three paintings on the theme. The initial painting,Not even a Letter (32-20 Blues), was commissioned by the woman that was about to rehabilitate the building. With any luck I will be able to get the owners of the other two to let me post pictures of them.
At the time, I was listening to the music of Robert Johnson and lost in my own bittersweet blues. It was spring. I was involved with a beautiful woman who was nothing but trouble. I was packing my bags and leaving town. The mood was right. I photographed the house on a stormy afternoon and executed all three paintings in rapid succession.
As you can see, Dennis is a very well read and educated young scholar. Dennis points out that next to the painting are "a theories of modern art book, ee cummings book, plato perhaps, and history of the
church book." I can also see some movies, but I assume they are only materials from Dennis's extensive research into pop culture.
A Jules Buck Jones painting hangs adjacent to mine. This painting is a good specimen from our time at VCU. During the time that Dennis, Jules, and I painted in the same studio, Jules executed an enormous scroll-drawing on a roll of paper. He was lost in a fascinating world of roadtrip imagery. These days, his work plays with a bizarre naturalism and dovetails nicely with the work of Christopher Reiger.
Dennis also has a ceiling fan. Above my painting you can just glimpse a fragment of the original Magna Carta.
I love the way this space turned out. This was once Brian and Lisa's kitchen. Little by little, they jettisoned their kitchen stuff and used their kitchen as a library. When Brian got his licence, he needed a room with a lock, so this became, once and for all, The Office.
This is Holly. She's a baby. I actually posted this before, but how could I resist putting it up again?
This Serpent was a collaboration with M.B. Rew. It was a wedding present for Brian and Lisa. It is made out of stuffed cloth and has a rope spine. Like any proper serpent, it has seven eyes and a bell on its tail. Next to it, in front of the stuffed wolverine head, you can just make out the egg that we gave them on their actual wedding. We wrote a silly little poem to go with it. The Serpent is large enough to wrap around one's shoulders.
This piece, entitled Brother Bite Brother, hangs next to an aerial photo of what I assume to be East Boston. I approve of the pairing.
I drew this piece in a bit of a frenzy after an altercation with my late dog, Loki. He was a great fella, but when he got a whiff of bitch-in-heat he turned into a mad dog. In this instance he only snarled and threatened me, but he once got my brother in the arm over a female Pitbull. I drew this with an ink dropper. I believe it's the first frontal nudity on my site.
I was honored when Rosemary travelled to Richmond to attend the opening of my show, Lost in the Park. I was further honored when she chose to take this painting home. Its name is Valkyrie., and it is based on the image of a friend's daughter at her birthday party. The creature crawling at her feet is a mystery. As mentioned in a previous post, it has reappeared in one of my new paintings.
Greta made this frame out of old Oregon Hill wood. It looks great.
Here the painting 'Autohagiography' guards a hallway, just above a reptile cage. Reiger was a natural pick for this painting, since his Hungry Hyaena blog has been one of my favorites since its inception. A boy and his hyaena...
Here one of my Beasties hangs next to a lovely, original Alice Neel. Somehow, my Beasties seem to gravitate towards babies. Weird. Again, note the reptile cage.
This iconographic self-portrait has found good company among masks and taxadermic specimens, which are another favorite of Reiger's. I believe that the drawing above my print is one of Reiger's early works from his years as an undergrad.
Here, my drawing of the Barred Owl hangs next to Reiger's studio. This pen and ink drawing took me two weeks to execute. Towards the end, there was an earthquake. At first I thought the odd movement was simply a symptom the raging hangover that I had. As soon as I realized what was happening, my immediate and only concern was for the safety of my drawing, which I had carelessly left out on my drawing table. Here it hangs with an interesting drawing of Reiger's and some exotic butterflies. In the lower right corner, you can just make out the top of a wonderful SEM image of a mite. We obtained this image from a William & Mary researcher for use with the original Synoddity event. Who needs monsters when you have mites crawling all over you?
One man's trash is another man's treasure-- or at least a decent backdrop for some booze. This decade-old doodle was a cast-off that Reiger saved from the recycle bin. It's funny to think of things like this persisting out in the world. Both Reiger and my friend Dennis Mathews have astutely held on to the cast-offs of their fellow artists. While I wouldn't toot my horn about this one, both Reiger and Mathews now own some great work that was en route to oblivion.
Acrylic on Panel
24" x 18"
This painting is from the Cohabitants series, on which I am currently working. I have always abhorred silverfish and have unpleasant memories of discovering them-- alone in a closet, swarming out of a forgotten package of graham crackers, hidden in the bottom of a box. They are stunningly fast and surprisingly meaty when crushed.
Those acquainted with my work may recall the painting 'Standard', which was the progenitor of this series. It is a 4' x 3' panel that featured a termite and a pair of spade forks. I was never satisfied with the final painting and have reworked it and renamed it. The new version, 'Standard Decay,' is nearing completion. Other paintings in this series feature the earwig, the orb spider, and the moth. At one point there was an ant, but it was cannibalized by the Sunday Park series (also forthcoming).
