Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Lost Dreams on Canvas




As part of Lost Dreams on Canvas, I painted this portrait of Ray Pantoja for Lisa Espinosa and her family.  Ray, "RJ", is deeply loved and missed by his family and friends.  Ray, also known as Hommie, was a talented young DJ.  He loved his music, his daughter and his family.  Ray would often ask, "Has anyone told you they loved you today?"   Ray's life was tragically cut short by gun violence in Philadelphia.  




Friday, December 1, 2017

Dianne's Dish


"Dianne's Dish", oil on board, 8 x 8"

I heard a man say he sometimes feels there is a piece of glass between he and the world, sometimes between he and himself.  He didn't say whether he felt the glass was a barrier or protective, thick or thin, strong or fragile.  








Thursday, August 10, 2017

Solace


"Solace", oil, 11 x 14"
Walking The Marshland by Stephen Dunn


It was no place for the faithless,
so I felt a little odd
walking the marshland with my daughters,

Canada geese all around and the blue
herons just standing there;
safe, and the abundance of swans.

The girls liked saying the words,
gosling,
egret, whooping crane, and they liked

when I agreed. The casinos were a few miles
to the east.
I liked saying craps and croupier

and sometimes I wanted to be lost
in those bright
windowless ruins. It was April,

the gnats and black flies
weren't out yet.
The mosquitoes hadn't risen

from their stagnant pools to trouble
paradise and to give us
the great right to complain.

I loved these girls. The world
beyond Brigantine
awaited their beauty and beauty

is what others want to own.
I'd keep that
to myself. The obvious

was so sufficient just then.
Sandpiper. Red-wing
Blackbird. "Yes," I said.

But already we were near the end.
Praise refuge,
I thought. Praise whatever you can.

Monday, May 22, 2017

Fairmount Fury

"Fairmount Fury" Oil, 12 x 12"

A City Sunset

Across the roof-tops of the town
I saw the flaming sun go down;
For some, another day of tears
Lay buried in the hurrying years.

The shadows folded; here and there
A yellow light began to flare.
For some, another golden day
Of gladness sped upon its way.

-    Charles Hanson Towne

Monday, March 6, 2017

19th and Wylie


"19th and Wylie", 3 1/4" x 4 1/2", oil pastel on 300# oil paper


What Kind of Times Are These

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill
and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows
near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted
who disappeared into those shadows.

I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled
this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,
our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear.

I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods
meeting the unmarked strip of light—
ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:
I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it's necessary
to talk about trees.

-Adrienne Rich

(+ thank you Karen, Nicole and Elliott) 

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Shallot and Red Anjou Pear


"Shallot and Red Anjou Pear", oil on Ampersand gessobord, 7 x 5" 

Sold


“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”

― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray




Thursday, January 26, 2017

Turnip is a Vegetable

"Turnip is a Vegetable", oil on Ampersand gessobord, 7 x 5"

Sold


Call any vegetable
Call it by name
Call one today
When you get off the train
Call any vegetable
And the chances are good
The vegetable
Will respond to you.

- Frank Zappa


Friday, January 20, 2017

Into the Soup


"Bum Soup", 5 x 7", oil on Ampersand Gessobord

Artsbridge Members Show, opening February 4, Prallsville Mill, Stockton, NJ

Click Here for Artsbridge Information

Sold


"Bum Soup"

Bum Soup she said it was,
boiled potatoes in milky water,
chopped celery and egg,
oregano.
Salt and pepper.
Pin money saved
for Bingo,
bosomed, safe,
for after Mass where,
tissue on her head,
she would pray
for protection.


-Sharon Egan
for my grandmother, Francis Blandina Moroski Linetty

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Purple Potatoes and Radicchio


"Purple Potatoes and Radicchio", 5 x 7", oil on Ampersand Gessobord

"One of the most marvelous things about poetry is that it's useless. It's useless. 'What use is poetry?' People occasionally ask in the butcher shop, say. They come up to me and they say 'What use is poetry?' And the answer is no use, but it doesn't mean to say it's without value. It's without use, but it is valuable. The first thing the dictators try to get rid of are the poets, and the artists, and the novelists, and the playwrights. They burn their books. They're terrified of what poetry can do." 

- Michael Longley

“The Ice-Cream Man”


Rum and raisin, vanilla, butterscotch, walnut, peach:
You would rhyme off the flavours. That was before
They murdered the ice-cream man on the Lisburn Road
And you bought carnations to lay outside his shop.
I named for you all the wild flowers of the Burren
I had seen in one day: thyme, valerian, loosestrife,
Meadowsweet, tway blade, crowfoot, ling, angelica,
Herb robert, marjoram, cow parsley, sundew, vetch,
Mountain avens, wood sage, ragged robin, stitchwort,
Yarrow, lady's bedstraw, bindweed, bog pimpernel.


 Listen to Krista Tippett’s full interview with Michael Longley here, On Being.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Homage to Mr. Finney's Turnip


"Homage to Mr.Finney's Turnip", 5 x 7", oil on Ampersand Gessobord

Sold


Mr. Finney's Turnip

Mr. Finney had a turnip,
And it grew, and it grew,
And it grew behind the barn,
And the turnip did no harm.

And it grew, and it grew,
Till it could grow no taller;
Then Mr. Finney took it up
And put it in the cellar.

There it lay, there it lay,
Till it began to rot;
When his daughter Susie washed it
And put it in the pot.

Then she boiled it and boiled it,
As long as she was able;
Then his daughter Susie took it
And put it on the table.

Mr. Finney and his wife
Both sat down to sup;
And they ate, and they ate,
Until they ate the turnip up.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow