Similar Posts
The Red Pope Meets Piss Christ
In the Vatican City State on June 23, 2023, beneath Michelangelo’s High Renaissance mural in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis addressed some 200 invited artists and creative types. One attendee was Andres Serrano—maker of the infamous Piss Christ photograph and other sacrilegious images. I’m not writing this essay as a practicing Catholic, but as a working artist. The Pontiff’s assembly…
A Cowboy at Rest with the Rough Riders
In December 2022 my wife Jeannine and I fled Lost Angeles, California to vacation in the wilds of Arizona. The following impressions and photos will describe our adventures in the Wild West of the Union’s 48th state. We first visited Prescott, the historic city in Yavapai County. The population of Prescott is around 45,800 souls, which is just about the…
The Painter and the Poets
RATTLE is an important national literary publication that offers contemporary poetry, translations, reviews, essays and interviews. I’m pleased to announce that my painting, The Red Dress, appears as the cover for the journal’s Spring 2007 issue. RATTLE publishes print issues twice a year, but also releases web based versions as PDF downloads during the months of March and September. The…
Anatomy of an Oil Painting: Iraqi Child
I created this small oil painting of a war wounded child in observance of the March 19th, 2005, second anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. People all over the world have shown their opposition to the war in that country, and my painting is just one small contribution to that powerful international voice demanding peace. Children in…
The Last Supper of Western Civilization
This essay will broach the subject of The Last Supper, a controversial artwork by photographer Elisabeth Ohlson. Deemed blasphemous by many, it was exhibited at the European Union Parliament in Brussels, Belgium in May of 2023. I will contrast Ohlson’s irreverent photo with a brief overview of how visual artists in the West have portrayed The Last Supper—the final meal…
Edward Hopper: A Retrospective
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is the subject of a major retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago, the last venue for a traveling exhibition that included stops at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Encompassing nearly 100 of the artist’s most notable prints and paintings, the exhibit features some of the artist’s most iconic…