Oil Painting

Supports for the oils: baltic birch plywood, masonite, or archival-style heavy papers. all are given multiple coats of gesso. on a marble slab, colors are mixed with Dorland's wax - a medium that speeds up the drying process and provides texture. The paint is applied with brushes, palette knives and fingers. Usually there are 5 or 6 paintings going at once, which enables me to continue working while each layer dries. After two layers have dried I start scraping and scarifying the paint with razor blades, pottery needles, old credit cards and other tools. I add and subtract, add and subtract until the painting seems finished.

Mixed Media

Various combinations of wax, water-soluble pastels, oil pastels, watercolors, acrylics, charcoal, graphite powder, pencils and colored pencils are used in the mixed media paintings. In the end they are sprayed with a final clear coat to protect them.

Sculpture

Ceramic sculptures are modeled terra cotta or stoneware clay, fired once or twice. After the first firing, the bisque fire, I often paint the figures with acrylic paint or rub in shoe polish and other materials. The second firing is either in a Raku kiln - where the bisque fired pieces are heated to high temperatures, then removed with tongs and submerged in barrels of old leaves, newspaper, sawdust, or simply submerged in water for special surprising effects.

The mixed media sculptures start with a wood and wire armature. Recycled and natural materials are added until the piece is finished. Some materials I've used: Porcupine quills, feathers, animal skulls and fur, copper, steel, plaster, bones, etc.

Monoprints

Currently I'm making monotypes using a piece of plexiglass on which I roll colors, layer stencils that I cut out of Yupo paper, and then run through a large press. These prints are layered by using the same plate with different colors and stencil arrangements, over and over again.