This is #6 in the limited edition button series. This is the limited edition of a recent painting called The Bear That Got My Friend To High School. Story:.I was talking with some friends tonight about what we were all like when we were kids. I mean, little kids. Somehow we got on the subject of security items. You know, blankets, thumb sucking, that kind of stuff. Well, one of my friends mentioned that he had a teddy bear and that he slept with it almost until high school. Of course, we all gave each other a hard time and had some good laughs. So, heres to the laughs and heres to the bear ...Enjoy!

Only 25 of these buttons will be made available. Once these 25 button are gone, that is it. I have worked with the printer to make sure that each button is individually numbered to reflect it's placement in the set. (If you are the 5th person, you will receive button #5 of 25.)

 
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Last summer we went to visit some friends in the Netherlands and Germany. They are all professional musicians. Not the garage band kind of musicians but like real playing-music-for -a-living kind of musicians. One performs with a big "broadway" type show in Amsterdam. Anyway, we were taking the train into Hamburg and had to make a pit stop at a music shop in downtown Hamburg so she could pick up a new mouthpiece (?) for one of her trumpets. As they were talking about music in German I was grabbing all kinds of flyers and magazines and sticking them into my bag. (I was probably not representing Americans very well but at least I wasn't asking where the nearest McDonalds was.) After we left, my friend told me that the music store owner asked why I wanted all the different flyers. "I explained you were a painter," she said. The store owner replied, "what do those have to do with painting?" We laughed. Well, here is to the music store owner in Hamburg who wondered what these had to do with painting...Enjoy!

 
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Listen. Think. Speak.

 

Its funny. The initial reaction from most of the people who have seen seen this painting is "Why is the person puking?" We laugh a minute and then, after a few mintues, it is then "Oh, I see! It is not puke." (Boy, no matter how you try to dress it up "puking" is just not a pleasant word...sorry I got off track) Well, it isn't puke, it is words and out of the head comes ideas and with the ear we listen. It really can be a simple as that. Not just in this painting but possibly everything. You know now that I write that, it never ends up being as simple as that because we always end complicating things more and it all ends up being about bills and gas prices and deadlines and schedules and whats for dinner and who is going to be there and the alarm clock and gas prices again and bills again and somehow all the listening and thinking and speaking gets put aside underneath the whole mess and the alarm clock wakes up to do it all again. Well, here is to remembering that underneath the whole mess are some simple things that are much more important...Enjoy!

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I have this horrible memory of singing this song in elementary school. It was maybe 2nd or 3rd grade and the whole class was gathered in the library. We were all sitting on the floor surrounding the teacher. She was reading us a book out loud. After the book was done, she thought it would be fun for us all to sing some songs. I remember singing B-I-N-G-O and this one Old McDonald Had A Farm. To spice things up a bit, my teacher picked out kids to make the animal sounds out loud when the time came. Well-I'll-be-scarred-for-life, I get elected to make the PIG noise. I was already a shy kid but now I have to make the pig noise in front of the whole class. So, the line comes around, I do my best and make the best pig snort I can. Man it was a ripper. The whole class is breaking out laughing so hard, the song actually falls apart and they have to start again. Well, this goes on like three more times with the same result. Finally, the teacher asks me to just say "Oink, Oink" instead. It was then and there that I learned the power of laughter and also that an "Oink Oink" is never a good replacement for a hearty "snort snort"... Enjoy!

 
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Play guitar in 7 days or your money back. I was 15 when I got my first guitar. Actually, it was a bass guitar. Like most 15 year olds, I am pretty sure that by day number two, I was a full fledged rockstar. I think I learned an easy bass line from the Boys Don't Cry album after 10 hours locked in my room. My finger tips blistered and throbbing. I think I even adopted a bit of a swagger. After that I couldn't watch a music video without picturing myself on stage standing in with my bass. That is, until I finally met someone who could actually play the instrument. After listening to that guy at the guitar shop the reality hit. I really was just a pimply 15 year old who couldnt drive and it took 10 hours to find those 4 notes on the neck of that bass and mom yelled through the door to keep it down and I was only going to make it onto 120 minutes in my dreams... That was one of the best realizations I have ever had...Enjoy! (Oh by the way, the other thing I learned around this time is NEVER record your first attempt at writing a love song. It will haunt you. Cheers!)

 
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Im currently working on a series of six ninjas. Each one on a 4"x4"x1" canvas. As I was waiting for the paint to dry between coats I was working on many other pieces. (This room looks like a graveyard for half-finished paintings right now.) Anyway, in between the coats I worked up these 3. I know this isnt much of a story. Thats OK. Sometimes, you just need to be quiet and enjoy whats in front of you...Enjoy!

 
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When it comes down to it, the only reason I paint is because it is the one of the few things that you can do where you can really do whatever you want. No rules. I guess, if you want to nitpick, you can actually do whatever you want with every second of every day if you wish. (However, I have others depending on me, like most of us, so unfortunately, doing whatever you want, doesn't always pay the bills very well.) Anyway, I'm on a tangent... Each time you pick up the pen or brush, there is only 'you' to tell 'you' what to do. For whatever my reasons, I ended up with this simple figure with pink and black on wood. Seemingly plain considering there really are no rules. I guess after thinking about it, maybe the real REAL reason I paint is because, even though you can do what ever you want, be as crazy as you want with no rules, you can, in the end, just be you and do what you do and it can be simple and pink and black on wood... Enjoy!

 
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Once you have given up the ghost, everything with follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos" - Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn. I was 15 or so when I read that opening sentence of Tropic of Capricorn. At the time, I don't think I fully understood what exactly he was meaning but when I applied the words to my own life at the time it felt more like a mantra. Well, here and now, there is no giving up the ghost. Completely the opposite if anything. So, here is a small painting to remind us that all things move forward and if we let ourselves, we can all move forward as well...Enjoy!

Only 25 of these buttons will be made available. Once these 25 button are gone, that is it. I have worked with the printer to make sure that each button is individually numbered to reflect it's placement in the set. (If you are the 5th person, you will receive button #5 of 25.) (FYI, these buttons have been selling out in 24-36 hours.)

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When it comes down to it, the only reason I paint is because it is the one of the few things that you can do where you can really do whatever you want. No rules. I guess, if you want to nitpick, you can actually do whatever you want with every second of every day if you wish. (However, I have others depending on me, like most of us, so unfortunately, doing whatever you want, doesn't always pay the bills very well.) Anyway, I'm on a tangent... Each time you pick up the pen or brush, there is only 'you' to tell 'you' what to do. For whatever my reasons, I ended up with this simple figure with pink and black on wood. Seemingly plain considering there really are no rules. I guess after thinking about it, maybe the real REAL reason I paint is because, even though you can do what ever you want, be as crazy as you want with no rules, you can, in the end, just be you and do what you do and it can be simple and pink and black on wood... Enjoy!

 
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