Monday, October 29, 2007





Snapshots taken by my son, Mathew, were the inspiration for these paintings. He took the photos through the windshield of the car as we drove through a raging sandstorm while I concentrated on staying on the road. The storm was the first really big one I had to drive through on the way to Ajo. It was scary but also eerily beautiful.

This is a sequential series of small paintings. They show the sandstorm from beginning to end. These paintings are somewhat abstract, and can be appreciated even if the viewer doesn’t know the story behind their creation. They are 8 x 10 inch acrylic on panel. They are the first paintings that I created in my new studio in Ajo.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Life on Belmont Avenue was started during the summer of 2006 and completed in 2007. It’s a snapshot view of the street I lived on for 20 years. Both of my children grew up here. We fell in love with Belmont Avenue because of the beautiful view of Squaw Peak and were lucky enough to find the perfect home for our family just when we needed it. The clutter of cars shows that this was a Saturday or Sunday (during the week the street would be virtually deserted). It also reveals that this is a street of homes with one-car carports and families with at least two or three cars! The beautiful sunsets were always a special treat.

Our children have grown up and we recently moved to Ajo, in southern Arizona, where we now live at the Curley School, a wonderful old school newly renovated for artists to live and work in. It’s beautiful here and a wonderful opportunity for us to work full time as artists. I do miss our neighbors and our home on Belmont and am glad to have created this painting.

Life on Belmont Avenue will be on display at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library in downtown Tucson from October 24th to November 26th.