The Hero's Journey in Art The Bend, 50 x 60 inches, oil on canvas, 2026. In art school, I latched on to ideas about art. One idea was to not compare myself to my fellow students, but to compare myself to the masters. I was encouraged, as an art student, to think of myself as standing on the shoulders of the giants who achieved great things well before I came along. Titian and Rembrandt and Thomas Eakins whispered in my ear as I painted. This is an academic approach to art tha

Hydrangeas and Pitcher, 8 x 10 inches, oil on panel I have this hand-blown glass pitcher that I bought in an antique shop. I’ve been wanting to paint it for some time. It is tall and slender with elegant curves like some teenage fashion model, gangly and sensual at the same time. The handle curves down to rest on its hip in a defiant shrug. It has a lot of personality for a pitcher. It’s a fitting vessel to show off the hydrangeas that surround the house. Tall, dark, smooth a

Meditation in Blue, 36 x 52, oil on canvas It has been here since the beginning. The subject is not the subject, nor is the abstraction. Both are vehicles that lean toward but cannot name. The painting is a field beyond all elaboration. It is not more and more. The experience is the consequence of fewer and fewer obscurations between the viewer and the field. It is much like a meditative experience. My striving is still striving. The goal is still the goal. Until I let it go.