The City That Never Sleeps

The City That Never Sleeps

22x28 Original Oil on stretched canvas

Part of City series

New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it - once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.

 

                           -John Steinbeck

Chi-town

  SOLD

Chi-town

 

22x28 Original Oil on stretched canvas

Part of City series

• Chicago


• Two years living in the windy city and it feels more like home that many places I've been before


• Drove all night to get to it at first. Delirious in the morning and didn't know a soul. I remember driving in on I-90 and seeing the city looming up, the traffic crunching in, space getting tighter. Falling into the midst of chaos, exit and then suddenly swallowed up in the heart of Chicago.


• Learning how to ride the L, red line, green line, brown line...best Indian food under the train tracks, $5 slice of pizza as big as your head from Bacci's


• The peace of running down N.Lake Drive by the lake, with the lights of the Hancock looming behind. You know they plant palm trees in the summer by the lake. HA. Then winter.


• Walking through the snow at night to talk to the homeless. I forgot to wear two pairs of socks that first night. I thought I got frostbite my feet hurt so bad. Walter sat at his usual spot at Ohio near Michigan. He held a sign saying "GOD IS GOOD". We were the ones doing "ministry" but HE preached to us about Jesus and told us he was a farmer planting seeds. So many of them, all with their spots, don't remember their names, all so happy to share a friendly chat while our bodies became numb.


• Michigan Ave, the Magnificent Mile. It is magnificent. Towering buildings, glittering shops. Beauty that amazing man created. Fascinating to think that part of it was originally lake and came into being through one squatter, Streeter, who stuck his boat on a sand bar, made land out of sand and garbage, invited more squatters to his "independent district" and fought off the authorities with guns and boiling water.


• Watching the tops of roofs with peeling paint and graffiti skim by. Riding the pink line out to Little Village, a slice of Latin America. New Life springing up. But more kids killed in shootings. And in Humboldt Park you have people like the Osgoods giving their lives to reach kids from broken homes, holding them back from the relentless pull of the gangs. Telling them they are loved and have futures.


• This city, so full, so rich. Fear, hope, exhilaration, endless stories, peace in chaos, growth. Wonderful.

Columbia

SOLD
"Columbia"
12x12 Oil on canvas.

Plein air. 

"This is no place to try and live my life."
                                     -Reliant K.

Bicycle

SOLD
"Bicycle"
12x16 Oil on stretched canvas

This is my first abstract painting and it came about simply because I hated my painting. I went to wipe it out completely or mostly and kind of liked the effect. Hence...this. I used a mixture of brushes, paper towels and my fingers. Painted from a photo I took in Charleston. Love that city! 

Lamborgini

SOLD
Lamborgini12x16
Oil on stretched canvas

Though I prefer Donofrio, this Lamborgini icecream freezer, sitting outside a shop near Chosica (Lima, Peru), and the complementary color of the door, caught my attention as we drove by.

Ode to Chicagoland-SOLD

"Ode to Chicagoland"
8x10 Oil on canvas panel
Daily painting
Painted Aug. 9th.

Its funny hearing people call the Windy City "Chicagoland". But they do! And all Chicagoans love the Bean or its official name, The Cloud Gate, a giant piece of art/architecture shaped like a kidney bean, that people can walk under and see their reflections in. It provides hours of entertainment for masses of people. Here's to the beautiful city!

I Found You

My first daily painting
I Found You
8x10 Oil on canvas panel
Painted July 30th

There's something about downtowns that I can't get away from. Tawa and I were walking to the market in downtown Cancun, while on our honeymoon, and I stopped when I saw these string of houses. I had to take a picture because I saw something special in them. So I entitled this "I Found You". I stopped to notice something that most people would let slip by.