Come collect the cactus fruit, I’ll write the poem
25 x 41″
oil on ponderosa pine with teddy bear cholla cactus skeletons, rusty metal, 2024
25 x 41″
oil on ponderosa pine with teddy bear cholla cactus skeletons, rusty metal, 2024
60″ x 14″
oil on ponderosa pine, with teddy bear cholla cactus skeletons, rusty metal and objects collected while hiking, 2004
50″ x 18″
on ponderosa pine with cholla cactus skeletons, 2023
60” x 23”
oil on ponderosa pine, with teddy bear cholla cactus skeletons. 2024
66” x 30”
oil on ponderosa pine, with teddy bear cholla, tree cholla cactus skeletons and juniper. 2024
68″ x 36″, oil on ponderosa pine, with rusty metal and screen, copper, nails, 2021
48 x 40”
oil on ponderosa pine, with teddy bear cholla cactus skeletons. 2023
25″ x 8″
oil on linen with bones and wood
2022
48″ x 18″
oil on aspen and pine, pyrography, copper and cholla cactus skeletons
2023
15 x 9”, Agave leaf tips, Arizona cypress cones, gamble oak acorn caps, sea urchins, mussel shells, banana yucca pods, 2021
23″ circle, bones in copper tray, 2014
29.5″ circle of bones, porcupine quills on copper tray, 2011
When I’m hiking I often come upon owl pellets. The owl catches its prey (usually a mouse, vole or woodrat) and swallows it whole. Owls cannot digest fur, teeth and bones, so the following day, before he goes in search of his next meal, he coughs up a pellet. I collect the pellets, dissect, clean and sort the bones and make bone mosaics out of them.
25.5″ x 17″, bones in rising bowl, 2006
31″ x 16″, bones from my cats in wooden rising bowl, 2015
When my beloved tomcats Catalpa, Chacho and El Capitán died I buried them and painted gravemarkers for them. A few years later I was thinking of their beautiful skeletons hidden beneath the ground and decided to dig them up and make something out of their bones. A memento mori to celebrate their lives.
12″ x 24″ x 2.5″, bones found in owl pellets in antique rising bowl, 2012
18″ x 10″, porcupine quills, bones, rattle snake skin on soapstone, 2019
38″ x 14″, bones in rising bowl, 2006
10.5″ circle, bones, sea urchins, seaweed on wooden plate, 2019
38″ x 14″, bones in rising bowl, 2006
11” circle sea urchins, bones, bettles, lobster and crab claws, dead man’s finger sea sponge on wooden plate, 2019
42″ x 6″, bones in wooden tray, 2006
8.5″ x 10″, bones in rusty dustpan, 2012