One day as I was writing/sketching in my journal, I glanced over at Bear and did this quick drawing. A moment of inspiration for me. The usual for him.

Once again, I’m returning after a long hiatus. Here is some work from hither and yon.

A drawing for a friend

This is proof that I can actually stay within the lines if I need to.

Another painting that I gave Mark: one of the series I had done reflecting on Genesis One. Since Mark’s death in 1999, it has found a home of Jane and Jim McNaught in San Juan Capistrano. Jane is Mark’s sister. She was kind enough to send me a photo of my painting.

Two multi-media assemblages

Working with Franklyn, I did some multi-media work. Here are two of my favorites.

Vincent Van Gogh has become something of a patron saint for me. One of my earliest introductions to serious art was when I was able to see a major collection of his work in 1970. The Van Gogh Museum was being constructed in Amsterdam and the main corpus of his work was sent on a world tour. The De Young Museum was one of the places to exhibit this “once in a lifetime” show.

I remember standing in line with hundreds of others to catch a glimpse of Vincent’s work — 14 year old me trying to look over the shoulders of bigger people to see his Sunflowers, landscapes and empty old shoes. Then my mom read a brief notice in a local neighborhood newspaper that the exhibition was being held over one extra day. I went back. And the museum was almost empty. Just me and Vincent — and a few other souls. I think that day Vincent began to speak to my soul:

He wanted to serve God from the pulpit. But he found his voice, mission and salvation in paint. While I’ve not lost the pulpit in my life, in my best moments — and most healthy and grounded, it’s paint that is usually there too.

This image is made up of several significant elements:

• an icon of Jesus
• a postcard of Vincent, with had and red beard
• the cut out border of another postcard with a small piece of a stamp from the Netherlands (a card sent to me by a close friend)
• an old stretched canvas; ragged and stained, I turned it over to use not its surface but its hidden interior
• two pieces of old undergraduate drawings
• three pieces of the set of Loyola High’s Midsummer Night’s Dream painted with high luster deep blue stage paint
• 5 Eucalyptus acorns (Franklyn always told us to use odd numbers when adding elements) These acorns are from a tree in Golden Gate Park — the very tree that I stood under in 1970 waiting to get into the Van Gogh exhibition
• liquid varnish poured onto the icon/old canvas

Tribute to Michelangelo, 1999

Another assemblage with significant elements:

• a charcoal drawing of a street from a summer course at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland sometime in the 1980’s
• another old canvas turned upside down and painted with black gesso
• the back of a piece of canvas board painted with light blue, with black gesso drips
• another piece of the set from Midsummer Nights Dream
• old tube of blue oil paint
• torn page of old journal
• wire spine of journal with single page attached
• edge of back cover of journal painted with black gesso
• five Eucalyptus acorns attached with black caulking material
• photo of Michelangelo’s Deposition from the Cross/Pieta from Florence
• poured liquid varish

The image of Michelangelo’s sculpture is something that I purchased in Florence when I went to Europe for the first time in 1974. I was transfixed by this work of art. I lost all track of time and discovered that I had been in front of it for over an hour. That is when I discovered the power of art. The image is one that I treasured. Every place I ever lived, from San Francisco, to Davis, to the Novitiate, LMU, Fordham and Loyola High — it was the very first thing I put on the wall. In 1988, I gave it to Mark Toohey as a Christmas present.

In 1999, after Mark’s death, his brother Rick was sorting through his belongings. He asked me if I knew anything about the photo. I claimed it. But I could no longer just hang it on the wall. It meant something new now. So I baptized it with paint, gesso, varnish and eucalyptus acorns.

A painting that I didn’t screw up

Loosely based on the Book of Kells, I used black caulk to outline the basic figure then starting pouring liquid acrylic paint onto the canvas while it was flat on some sawhorses. Added a couple of pieces of cheesecloth that were saturated with paint, some gel medium and lots and lots of gesso. Always lots of gesso. Did some detail work on the eyes.

This is a large painting. And a success. Mainly because I stopped before I f***ed it up by overworking it. Which I usually do when left to my own devices. Let go. I’m still learning.