The Next Light Print

My tastes and interests and ideas are very eclectic. I got into modern art as a teenager; fell in love with both European Modern art (Picasso, Miro, the Surrealists, Dadaists, etc.) and with modern American art, especially the Pop Artists. While living in Los Angeles in the 1990s through 2013, I was engaged with the art scene and showed art in group shows in Silver Lake (Monkey House) and Burbank (Hyaena) and out in the Valley (A. Stuart Gallery). I had a solo show at Hyaena. I studied and surveyed a primarily West-Coast art movement I prefer to call Lowbrow Art but it's also known as Pop Surrealism. My surveys took the form of 2 books published by Chronicle Books in San Francisco: Weirdo Deluxe (2005) and Weirdo Noir (2010). They are pop-art-historical books that I hope offer some real substance to readers. I also taught a class on Lowbrow Art history at Otis College of Art. I love so many things about the West Coast. Cool modern home in canyons fascinate me so I have made some paintings of them -- dark and moody, inspired by David Lynch's films and early 19th-century Romantic art. Living in an office on Hollywood Boulevard in a classic film-noir building (1930s) on Raymond Chandler Square (Cahuenga and Hollywood Boulevard) is also part of my experience in Los Angeles. There I painted Hollywood-inspired pop surreal paintings. Each morning I'd walk to a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe at Sunset near Vine and draw for hours. I also enjoyed and still enjoy living in Florida and digging the art here. I've lived in Key West for over a decade and also Broward County. I showed some wooden sculptures at the wonderful Lucky Street Gallery in Key West and a photo collage at Woodenhead Gallery. Lately I've gotten into making my art digitally. Overall, I celebrate both a noir sensibility and a goofy pop-humorous sensibility. I suppose we all have a sense of the lighter and darker aspects of life and we all probably respond to art that evokes such states or provides insights into them. I hope my art does that.