Sierra Stories + Land[back]scapes

My mom passed in 2022, real young (61) and it was really tough. We had to do probate, which is the Devil, and after the dust cleared, in late 2023, I rented a studio in an old dilapidated WPA Art Deco building from the 1930's up in Colfax, in the Northern Sierra Nevada foothills, on the I-80 corridor on the way to North Lake Tahoe from Sacramento, where my partner at the time, a local girl from Auburn, had been living little apartment a few blocks away...and I gave myself a winter to go on the mountain, and paint, and cry, go through all my worldly possessions...think about who I was, and where I might be going...and who we are, as a people, us savage Americans...painting became a ritual of grief and praise, healing, honoring, remembrance, gratitude.

The paintings that emerged from the process are about heritage, joy in nature, color. They are deeply American paintings. See, my mother's father's people were Chickasaw tribe who had migrated to California from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. She always had an alter in the middle of her house with pictures of our ancestors, ritual object and various elements...the spirit-in-the-world...they say the Indigenous mind sees all things as relationship, and reciprocal...ironically, this vision also underlies the foundational premises of 18th Century "Enlightenment" philosophy and modern scientific thought...but I digress.

The works have continued to develop, since I've been back on the Central California Coast...they are like biological things...they grow, evolve...

The mystic and the analytic...all things are one thing...I stay learnin'...thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy the work!

Who knows what the future holds...