Sexy Theo. 30" x 40"

The New York actor, model and intellectual Theodore Bouloukos, muse to artists all over the world. Painting him was an intimidating challenge, given all the splendid portraits of him that came before. He was ultimately thrilled with the image. My increasing obsession with pattern has become obvious. I enjoyed celebrating the erotic allure of a man over 50 and not slave of the gym. Never invisible as other men of his type, Teddy has a charisma that goes beyond narrow definitions of beauty.

Roads West

Roads of the American West are a recurring theme in my work and images of them are sprinkled throughout this site.

Oil On Canvas 30" x 40"

Tickling the Ivories Is No Laughing Matter for Elephants

Oil on Canvas 48" x 56"

Click on painting to enlarge.

A Grand Olde Party. 40" x 30"

A study in contrasts: soft and hard, gentle and rough, dressed and stripped, beauty and ugliness, architecture and nature, tranquil and violent, warm and cool, past and present. I chose a reserved palette of warm and cool colors that from a distance cancel each other's vibrancy to suggest grey tones. The greys are then interrupted by shocking red color surprises that evoke the abrupt physical jolt of hot pain that comes with the cold cruel blow. I am fascinated by random patterns in nature and continue to explore them in this painting through the falling tufts of snow that quiet and cool the heated scene.

The painting is a visual metaphor for the outdated, rabidly homophobic values, ongoing legislative bullying and personal attacks of the Republican Party on gay people and their families. The disdain and cruel neglect they showed during the AIDS crises in the 80's is legendary and unforgiveable. They created the notorious Proposition 8 in California in 2008. The men in the image could just as well be Trump's Cabinet and judicial choices. In 2019, government attacks continued just they did in the lavender scare of the 1950s. The POTUS filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting to the right to fire anyone who is percieved gay by nullifying Title VII civil rights protections. Then Republican lawmakers and attorneys argued that LGBTQ workers are not protected by federal civil rights law. Also in 2019, the Republican Regents of the University of Colorado installed a powerful homophobe as president of a university that rose up and strongly rejected him. This man was a US congressman who tried to deny my access to equal rights for life by twice introducing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Later he threw his support to the campaign of another legendary homophobe. Because Mark Kennedy oversaw our jobs and the American President along with his court appointees actively sought to strip us of our right to work, many instructors and staff felt unsafe and the sting of attack under Kennedy's brief failed reign. In 2022, Florida and other Republican led states passed many anti-gay, anti-trans laws and their school boards banned books and curriculum in attempts to turn back the clock and erase gay people entirely. In 2023, book bannings, laws against Drag and Trans health care continue the never ending crusade of hate.

These sour, bitter men are always mounting another attack it seems and each new aggresive move brings a fresh round of deep hurts as depicted by this visceral, intimate bashing. I have frozen these Republicans in the cold past, as they are still living by the values of the 1930's. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The cold snow and painful blow is a visual metaphor of their abject cruelty.

Friends of Dorothy. There were not many visible gay men for a kid of the late 70's and early 80's to see on TV. Representation was scant and often merely presumed. Here's to those few who may not have been publicly out, but were all that I knew: Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly, Truman Capote, Elton John, Liberace. With references to more "friends of Dorothy": Harvey Milk, Craig Russell, Jim Nabors, Rip Taylor, the Village People, Divine and Henry Willson proteges Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson. A tennis ball represents the wildly important contribution for equality and visibility by legendary pioneer Billie Jean King. Desi Arnaz Jr, while not gay, represents the masculine ideal of the day and smoldering sexuality that informed my 6 year old self of my own orientation long before I knew what gay even was. I did already know then that dark hair and hairy chests such as Desi's fascinated me. So much so, he appears twice in the painting, offering drag to Paul, and a flower to Elton and being lusted after by all. Liberace's wandering hands made him very uncomfortable on the set of his mother's TV show and in the painting. Also of significant impact to all of us, AIDS was born in that era, claiming the lives Russell, Hudson and Liberace.

I included the words Fag, Homo, Queer and Gay, which in those days were not used with any positive connotations, and the name Anita Bryant to depict the era's hostile climate endured by gay people.

Inspired by a photo from Bernie Taupin's 21st birthday, I've recast and expanded it.

*An x-ray would reveal a completely different painting underneath the surface."

Autumn Bells

I have painted the Maroon Bells near Aspen several times. I have depicted their many moods and changing looks with the different seasons. They are monumental icons of my my formative years and are filled with memories. They are my hometown cathedrals. There is a completely different painting underneath this layer, one of my mom's favorites in fact. She was very upset that I painted over it. If you look carefully, you can see parts of the old image peeking through.

Oil on canvas, 56" x 48"

The other painting evokes the old Olympic Lift on Aspen Highlands althought the scenery is made up. It is a variation of the road and powerline motif that I keep returning to..

* X-rays would reveal a completely different paintings underneath these."

Ponderosa Pines. A favorite spot on a once nearly secret trail across the street.

My home in Boulder and dogs Dewey and Miles.

*An x-ray would reveal a completely different painting underneath the surface."

Bruz & Laurel 40"x 30"

These children are Bruz Fletcher and his cousin Laurel - Louisa's Fletcher Tarkington’s daughter - running away from home at age 8. They pretended that they walked all the way to Indiana from New York City and maintained their story to the frustration of the police that found them. Laurel later developed schizophrenia and die at age 16. At age 13 Bruz shot himself but survived the wound and finally died by his hand at the age of 34. Both his mother and grandmother prematurely ended their own lives as well. Their fascinating story was lost to time, until my exhaustive research brought it to light.

Complex, irregular patterns and rhythms of trunks, leaves, shadow and light are abstracted and simplified into color and brushstroke. Stylization replaces detail and celebrates the physical paint itself. Paint is not made slave to replicating realistic and exhaustive details of an actual forest. The creative application of paint evokes the feeling of dense woods in a way that also engages the viewers' own imaginations.

Portrait of Francoise Hardy

Comment Te Dire Adieu?

A visual deconstruction of Serge Gainsbourg's clever re-imagination of the drab, unsuccessful Margaret Whiting recording of the tune "It Hurts to Say Goodbye." He reworked elements of the song to create the very different and infectious French Pop hit "Comment Te Dire Adieu?" recorded by Francoise Hardy. Gainsbourg created an unusual rhyme scheme based on the sound of the letter x and set it to the revamped melody of the original song. 

The painting's graphic composition is based on the form of x. X's move throughout: in the twinkle of stars, the charm on her necklace, in her crisscrossing hair, in the umbrella, reflections on the 45, etc. Details include the original English recording as a 45rpm disc, the French title and imagery from Gainsbourg's new lyrics such as the cold Pyrex heart, the burning flint heart, the 'grey-blue morning', and 'white night' (an idiom meaning 'sleepless') sprinkled with open eyes. A breezy Hardy with the umbrella recalls one of her album covers. She is covered with band-aids as reference to the original discarded English lyric and title "It Hurts to Say Good-bye" no longer used by Gainsbourg in the French. This painting won an Award of Excellence at 40 West Arts in Denver.

Portrait of My Mother

This is a portrait of my mother planting tulip bulbs among the aspen trees in the back yard. When I was in first grade Nanette Ritter wondered how my mom's bulbs bloomed before anyone else's. I've taken notice ever since. Now I plant tulips and daffodils by the thousands - and a few aspen trees too.

Oil on canvas, 48" x 43"

The Ginger Mermaid