The Earth-Home
The Earth, our home in the Milky Way: It is powerful, strange, beautiful and miraculous. I present my own visual interpretation of Earth and everything that calls it home.
Mid-Summer’s Dream
Ancestral Communion
Rhythm of Change
Verdant Summer
Harvest Time
Rebirth
Yuhaviatam
Moon Goddess
San Gorgonio Mountain Magic
Dancing Desert Dreams
Tribute to Van Gogh
Fung-Incarnation
Lone Pine
Cahuilla Cosmic Circle
Description: This is based on my study of Cahuilla enthobotany, culture and mythology; and my interest in foraging & hunting culture. The Cahuilla lived in what's now Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, SB mountain foothills, San Jacinto mountains and parts of Riverside.
The middle is the sacred life giving Sun, then the cycles of the moon outside of that.
Plants/trees from top going clockwise: Pine, Elderberry, Manzanita, Agave, Joshua Tree, White Sage, Oak, Tabacco
Animals from top going clockwise:
Bear, Eagle, Bighorn Sheep, Tortoise, Rabbit, Salmon, Rattlesnake, Coyote
Winter Oak
This a young Oak tree deep into the winter season. The tree’s leaves have fallen and it rests until springs. The designs in white and china-blue represent the life force that is resting until the Spring.
Oak and Acorn
Inspired by this excerpt from this Alan Watts quote. Alan Watts was a philosopher popular in the 60s and 70s who wrote and lectured on many topics, especially Zen Buddhism.
“But remember, in the process of growth, the oak is not better than the acorn; because what does it do? It produces acorns.
Or you could say—just like I sometimes love to say—that a chicken is one egg’s way of becoming others. So an oak is an acorn’s way of becoming other acorns. Where is the point of superiority?”
TreeSoul
A tree is alive: it moves, thinks, and communicates. It’s hard for some to imagine a tree as something with “soul” because trees don’t live on the same level as us.
TreeMind
Like TreeSoul, this painting celebrates the unique intelligence of trees.
Fun Fact: This piece of wood already had the shape of a tree trunk in the wood grain, and I used a varnish to highlight it.
Elemental
The meeting place of the four basic elements of earth, water-earth-wind-fire.
Homage to Van Gogh
Growing up, the dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh was probably the first artist who inspired me to become an artist; so I decided to create this homage to his style. I created these red, green and brown swirls with the Christmas season in mind as well.
Get Lost
I created this during and after a 3 day camping trip in Joshua Tree, California where the desert is full of neon colors and brimming with strange forms of life. I did literally get lost one day in the desert when I was searching for some petroglyphs, but it turned out to be a perfect time for self reflection.
Stay Wild
This one is simple: stay wild and never completely settle for boring domestication.
The Primordial Pyramids
A frosty mountain range done in the minimalist style.
Plug In
Unplug from the nonsense of modern life and plug into Everything. As the philosopher Alan Watts said: “If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.”
Nature’s Cathedral
Here in this image I have re imagined the concept of a religious building as nature itself. To me, wilderness is the most sacred place on earth and the best way to connect to the Ultimate Reality.
Cosmic Acorn
An acorn with the infinite creative force within it.
Santa Rosa
This was a project inspired by a recent adventure to the Santa Rosa wilderness. I begun the painting under moonlight and cold desert air while camping and finished the details at home.
Trees and plants included are: Pinyon Pine, Yucca, Agave, Manzanita, Juniper, Lily, Prickly Pear, and White Sage
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Yuyily
Yuyily is the Cahuilla word for the Juniper tree, which is a feature of this unique artwork and one of my favorite trees. This beautiful piece of apple-wood is shaped like the hills of the southern California deserts, the wild neon shapes in the background remind one of the bright colorful life thriving, and the silhouettes of trees & plants almost seem printed onto the background.
The Painted Desert
Inspired by a few explorations of Joshua Tree. The desert is far from being desolate and monochrome; rather it is full of life and bright neon colors.
This is on a beautiful Walnut board.
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Defend the Deserts
the gods of nowhere
A celebration of the chaparral ecosystem and the Coyotes and Ravens, masters of that ecosystem.
This is on a beautiful Walnut board.
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The Living Mountain
It is easy to dismiss a mountain as being a lifeless thing, a big pile of rocks…but in reality a mountain is made of life in all its shapes & forms. The bright colors, the shapes, the eyes…it all represents the complex web of life that exists on a mountain. The heart in the middle is the heart of the mountain.
Yinning and Yanging
The earth like everything else is part of the process of Yin and Yang, which are the poles of existence. It is life and death, winter and spring, light and dark…and so on. In this image, the same tree is portrayed in winter and in spring; and I used bright designs against the dark side and dark against the light to show that opposites are actually part of the same reality.
The Fisherman
Painted onto a refurbished piece of redwood from an old water tower, this is a beautiful scene of Big Bear Lake with a man catching fish which is flying through the air. There are some questions you might have looking at the image: is it sunset or sunrise? Is it a windy day? Is that a “flying fish”?
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