<------- Dadanation ------->

after a while, a few becomes many

2008-03-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

into the new year

1. "fountain, yerba buena park, night time"

2. "3 psychopsis blooms, portrait"

3. "officer down"

2007-09-22T03:08:00.000-07:00

two images

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fuse box, august 2007 (8" x 10")

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sophia (lemon rind and big eyes), august 2007 (8" x 10")

2007-09-22T01:24:00.000-07:00

the latest installment of photographs from august 2007:

ranging from photos of the eclipse (8/28/07)*

1. the full moon, just before the eclipse

2. black and white full moon over the tempest bar, pre-eclipse

3. tempest bar and full moon, pre-eclipse

4. tempest bar and the full moon portrait, pre-eclipse

5. the eclipse at about 50% completion

6. the eclipse at about 65% completion

7. eclipse over, the moon returning

to some random photos around san francisco

1. exacto knife on sidewalk

2. graffiti girl with graffiti all over her

3. sutro tower shrouded in fog

4. niall's cactus on the windowsill, midnight

5. the castro theater marquee from robert's kitchen window

6. graffiti in the haight

7. ferry building, 5 p.m.

to several of the dahlia photographs
(taken either at the sf dahlia show -- as noted --
OR
taken out in golden gate park in the dahlia grove)

1. yellow/red bloom (dahlia show)

2. white/pink bloom (dahlia show)

3. tiny (and i do mean tiny) red bloom (dahlia show)

4. red pinwheel bloom (with bee)

5. the perfect photo: yellow/white bloom (dahlia show)

6. pink/yellow pinwheel bloom (tiny bug in left center of flower)

7. big puffy yellow bloom with bee

8. swirly pink/white bloom (dahlia show)

and finishing off with some orchid photos

1. calm: 3 Psychopsis blooms

2. tulip orchid: detail of Anguloa bloom

3. on the recliner: Coelogyne marmorata

4. one of my Oncidiums

5. mid-afternoon: a pair of Miltonia blooms

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* in memory of naomi s.

2007-07-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

a string of new photographs
in no specific order
not sorted/organized
by any stretch of the imagination.

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2007-07-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

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chinese lantern flower (12" X 12"), march 2007

mixed media

the original image for this painting was a photograph of mine take in our garden last year (of an abutilon flower). this painting took the longest of all my paintings to finish.

i began working on it in november 2006 and did not finish it until march 2007.

why did it take so long? layers. and layers. and layers. the brick in the painting is crushed brick from the garden that i basically made brick back out of on the canvas.; the flower itself is a lot of oil paint on top of more oil paint and the flower itself extends up off the canvas about 1/4th of an inch. most of the leaves in the piece are real leaves from the abutilon tree in our garden.

2007-02-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

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shuen (8" X 10"), february 2007
mixed media

for some reason,
painting chinese ideograms has me in its sway.
while a smaller painting, shuen,
the second such ideogram i've painted,
took longer to finish than one might suspect.
shuen, when translated,
re-presents "deep and profound."

what is visible, but inadequately so, is the fact that shuen
is actually a very layer-intensive painting.
the ideogram itself is raised about 1/4" off the canvas.
additionally, as is visible,
small cut-glass beads of various colors are inside the image.

the finish on the painting is actually more a coating.
the image is encased by a layer of this cool, clear resin-based finish.
it's messy in the making,
but once done and dry,
it leaves the painting frozen under
a sheet of ice-like clarity.

i really like this painting.
oddly enough, it seems to be a very moody or dark piece
but i find it exactly the opposite.

UPDATE: the painting now has a fabulous new home
with three truly amazing people,
one of whom will always be family to me.

2006-12-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

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phaius tankervilleae (36" X 36"), november 2006

mixed media (mostly oils)

this was a commissioned piece, based somewhat on a photo i took at the sf conservatory of a phaius tankervilleae orchid bloom stalk.

what is lost in the photo of the painting is the mosaic-tile orchid pot and the textured, almost 3-dimensional petals of the flower and windows.

the painting is actually 2 separate 36" X 18" panels making this a 3' X 3' piece.

2006-10-04T00:34:00.000-07:00

these are my first three autobiographical paintings.
as i moved into painting more and more,
these three paintings came into being.

all three are "mixed media"
(meaning that they have just about everything
from kid's glue/inks to oil paints to styrofoam fill
to decoupage to actual dice to crushed glass
to acrylic paint to even a bit of my own blood --
the latter being the only thing in there quite by accident).

however, as the autobiographical series moves forward
from #1 (canto xiii),
i also move forward into using more and more oil paint --
as can be seen in #2 (OY TIE),
so much so that #3 (what color is fear?)
is predominately oil paint,
although not exclusively.
in all 3, you can see the obvious "not-oil-paint stuff" in there too.

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canto xiii (18" X 14"), june - july 2006

mixed media

autobiography #1

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OY TIE (5" X 7"), august 2006

mixed media

autobiography #2

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what color is fear? (12" X 12"), august 2006

mixed media

autobiography #3

2006-10-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

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iwanagara blooms (for steve), (8" X 10"), july 2006

mixed media

2006-10-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

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chung (for timmy) (5" X 5"), july 2006

mixed media

2006-10-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

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neofinetia falcata (for leslie) (12" X 12"), july 2006

mixed media

2006-10-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

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birthday still life (12" X 16"), may 2006

mixed media

this piece was on display at the sf 2006 open studios exhibit (9th and brannan). now? it belongs to one absolutely amazing young woman.

2006-05-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

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flattery (24" X 20"), may 2006

based on the photograph to paint (see march 24, 206 entry for the actual photograph), this is my first painting. it is a mish-mash of water color, ink and some kid's 3-D goop. i added the koi because i did not want to overclutter the painting with the reflection of the roof of the sf conservatory (which is quite visible on the surface of the water in the actual photograph).

i really liked painting this and am now embarking on a few more canvas paintings of my images. flattery gets its name from the adage "imitation is the highest form of flattery" as i was inspired to take the original photo because of one that my friend cuddles had taken and sent to me electronically. her photo was so breathtaking that i had to snap a version of my own. one thing led to another and now my first painting.

2006-05-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

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sophia (8" X 6"), may 2006

an unintended but beautiful (or so i think) photograph of one of my dearest friend's first child, sophia. again, a technological feature -- in this case a fluke of fortune -- allowed me to get sophia's picture without flash and without much fanfare. i literally hit the 'take the picture' button and sophia happened.

2006-05-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

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night buddha (10" X 20"), may 2006

from my trip to the san francisco asian art museum, one of the most amazing buddha images i have ever seen. since no flash is allowed, i had to improvise a way to capture the buddha's image and still do it justice. a technological feature of my camera allowed me to photograph the buddha with a particular "night" function, hence the title. i hope night buddha does the image justice.

2006-05-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

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last bloom portrait #2, iwanagara flowers (7" X 7"), may 2006

the last three blooms on one of my orchids (an iwanagara which has yellow, not white/pink flowers). one of my favorite orchids, hands down. this is version two of their portrait.

2006-05-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

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last bloom portrait #1, iwanagara flowers (7" X 7"), may 2006

the last three blooms on one of my orchids (an iwanagara which has yellow, not white/pink flowers). one of my favorite orchids, hands down. this is version one of their portrait.

2006-04-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

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jordan's 6 bridges (v.3) (20" X 14"), april 2006

what can i say? i love the original image that my friend allowed me to transmogrify, and occasionally i find myself just playing around with the image.

this version, jordan's 6 bridges (v.3) is the result of one such tinkering.

2006-03-24T18:55:00.001-08:00

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pensive jade buddha -- miniature (2006)

my neighbor and i went to the sf asian museum on "free day" and they let you photograph inside the museum, except that you can not use a flash. which made this photo all the more difficult as it is a small piece of milky/light brown jade in a small glass-enclosed case. luckily i was able to get this one photo. i found the buddha to be exquisite and pensive and captivating. i am using this image pensive jade buddha -- miniature (along with the spathloglotis photo below) in my adapting of a tibetan mandala. just so you know, we have a great photo of me in manhattan where i am sitting in the same position as the buddha. however, i look neither pensive nor exquisite, i look like a lizard. we'll see how the piece develops...

2006-03-24T18:55:00.000-08:00

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ladyslipper -- flower detail (2006)

ok, back to the orchid exposition at the conservatory... i took just one photo of one ladyslipper orchid and this is it. apart from being a great orchid flower per se, what draws me to the flower is the imperfection in the upper right-hand part of the crown. even the flaw is amazing.

2006-03-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

1.
2.
3.

4.
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these four photos were taken at the sf conservatory of flowers -- they had an orchid exposition which was good/great. however, the rest of the conservatory was unbelievable. two of these pictures are from the exposition, the other two from the gorgeous conservatory itself.

so, from top to bottom, here are the photos and their general specs:

1. "to paint" (2006): a lily on the pond in one of the rooms of the conservatory. i am painting this -- better to say i am trying to paint this picture, which means i am adapting it in the transfer. i have not touched up this photo at all (or any of these for that matter) and could not get over and still can't quite get over how the purple seems to float off the photo and how unreal the water looks.

2. "when i look up" (2006): literally, the ceiling of the conservatory. an amazing ceiling, an amazing building.

3. "spathloglotis with a ladybug" (2006): one of the most beautiful orchid flowers i have ever seen. i sat in the exhibit part of the conservatory taking photo after photo after photo of this orchid as it blew me away with its symmetry and coloring. this image is being adapted into a piece i am working on, trying to translate a tibetan mandala using more contemporary images. we'll see if it works or not.

4. "color explosion" (2006): i love epidendrums. i really liked the bunching and color mix of these few flower spikes from a few epidendrum.

2006-01-26T22:25:00.000-08:00

Blue Glass Brain Madala with Grid (24" X 24"), 2005
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This is one of the twenty or so variations of a mandala that I have done. The core fractal that was used in Blue Glass Brain Mandala with Grid (and its sister images) was a photograph I took of Dolores Park in San Francisco. The grid pattern I overlayed to get a sense of how this mandala might be converted into a mosaic (my next project).

2006-01-26T22:24:00.000-08:00

Migraine (12" X 12"), 2004/2005
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2006-01-26T22:22:00.000-08:00

Wuhan Bedside 1990 (12" X 18"), 2005
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From a black and white photograph of mine, taken in Wuhan (China) in late November 1990. While hard to see in this small rendition, if you look closely into the steel ball on the bed's headboard, you can see me taking the photo. There is part from a Tom Waits song "Who Are You" that Wuhan Bedside 1990 always makes me think of --> "do you cry?/do you pray?/do you wish them away?/are you still leaving nothing/but bones in the way?" (or something closely akin to that....).

2006-01-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

in Vivid Color for Susan (33" X 54" MOL), 2005
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Dylan, Edie, Robert McNamara, a great white shark and an excerpt from the British poet David Jones and another from the Amercan poet Ezra Pound somehow collided into in Vivid Color for Susan. My friend Stace has a lot to do with this image, having treated me to my first Dylan concert for my 32nd birthday (Dylan handed me the playlist when the show was over). As much of an homage as I could muster.

2006-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

flower trilogy (18" X 21"), 2005

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from a black and white photograph i took, colourized.

2005-07-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

9th circuit lamps: a wedding gift

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this image was a wedding gift for one of my favorite persons in the world and for his beautiful wife. it is 18" X 21." 9th circuit lamps: a wedding gift is based on a photo of mine of the lamps outside the 9th circuit court (as well as a photo of the golden gate bridge). i liked the idea of the two lamps with their own illumination and between them, a light all unto its own.

2005-05-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

When Beijing and Wuhan and San Francisco Meet At Sunrise
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2005-05-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Manta Ray Kind of Sky
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2005-05-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hallway Chinese Scroll
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2005-05-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

Barbie triptych melting into some orchids
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2005-05-19T10:17:00.001-07:00

Forbidden City, China, 1990
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2005-05-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

the daizees for real
by dadanation. please ask permission...

2005-05-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

quiltadaizees
by dadanation. please ask permission...

2005-05-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

SF Skyline In Outline
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2005-03-07T23:17:00.001-08:00

caballo de sonya
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for one of the most amazing persons i know. caballo de sonya is 20" X 24," NOT one of the intentionally square-shaped images and exactly as it says.

2005-03-07T23:17:00.000-08:00

spring mandala still life number 22 (v2.1, demo)
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ok, so part of the title is inspired by the song by the brothers johnson, "strawberry letter 22." the images however have very little to do with the song. the core mandala is in fact the 22nd mandala i have recently made; it finds itself amidst and among and underneath and what-not with a photograph of a chinese scroll that hangs in my front hallway as well as a simple photograph of mine of an old and very cool candle holder (the sun). spring mandala still life number 22 is 24" X 24" and a version of this image is being donated to the art span benefit which is coming here soon. this is, by the way, th last intentional square image. or so i think...

2005-03-07T23:15:00.001-08:00

flower study
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a friend gave me this very weird flower/weed which i then began photographing, layering, etc. and from that emerged this image. flower study is 1' X 1' and one version of this image is dedicated to my friend bob in seattle.

2005-03-07T23:15:00.000-08:00

what eliot forgot: (v2.1)
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a new format for what eliot forgot: and a few minor adjustments to boot. 24" X 24."

2005-03-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

for emily, indeed
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my friend emily. she is a great ballerina. for emily, indeed is another in the square series, although as you can see i have added a bit to this one so as to alter the geometric shape from square to rectangle (so that i could print out a smaller version to review it, etc.). the image is 18" X 18" and honestly is dedicated to em.

2005-03-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

homage to matthew brady
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recently there have been a number of new images, all of them square (as in geometric shape...). the first of these really is gambling w/ our lives he said. this image is another of such images with a few more following.

matthew brady was the brilliant photographer during the american civil war. this image is in honor of his work, and homage to matthew brady is based on his haunting photograph of the rocking chair lincoln was sitting in the night he was killed by john wilkes booth. it is 2' X 2'.

2005-01-30T15:14:00.000-08:00

7 palms over -- the entire week
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7 palms over is a 7-panel piece i was recently commissioned to do. the final product, seven 8" X 10" images, was a retirement gift for someone who has a fascination with palm trees. the very small strip above shows the 7 panels arranged as the days of the week, from monday to sunday. below, each of the days is shown in detail as its own panel.

the color scheme is the spectrum of colors (remember ROYGBIV?), one color per day. little did i know it but the seven deadly sins not only have a constellation associated with each sin, but also a color. i then also included the one of seven wonders of the world in each day, the "monday's child" line for each day, the day of the week translated into gaelic and, for symmetry, one of tchaikovsky's symphonies. so, when all is said and done -- each day has all seven components nested somewhere into it.

for example, since monday is the first day, and since red is the first color of the spectrum, monday is red. red is associated with the sin of wrath, whose constellation is ursa major. the sphinx is the chosen wonder of the world, with tchaikovsky's first symphony piece in the trunk of the palm tree. monday's child, of course, is full of grace.

the idea to include a piece of each of tchaikovsky's symphonies was the brain-child of phil, the person who commissioned the work, and it was a stroke of genius. the piece is for leon.

2005-01-30T15:09:00.000-08:00

7 palms over: sunday
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2005-01-30T15:08:00.001-08:00

7 palms over: saturday
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2005-01-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

7 palms over: friday
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2005-01-30T15:07:00.000-08:00

7 palms over: thursday
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2005-01-30T15:06:00.001-08:00

7 palms over: wednesday
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2005-01-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

7 palms over: tuesday
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2005-01-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

7 palms over: monday
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2004-12-22T02:17:00.000-08:00

blue christmas/blue palm tree (for phil)
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blue christmas/blue palm tree goes all the way from san francisco to costa rica.

2004-12-19T04:12:00.001-08:00

church street getting darker before the rain
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this photograph is an altered rendition of the one which is the base image for daisies and saul on the way to damascus. the brewing rain storm can really be seen as it encroaches the downtown part of san francisco. i was just sitting on my stoop when i absent-mindedly snapped this photograph.

2004-12-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

dolores park at dusk (for kaye)
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admittedly my favorite vista for photographs, dolores park at dusk (for kaye) just took form when i was fiddling with a new program that came with my external dvd writer/burner. the contrast between the cloud cover, the setting sun and the slow demise into sunset is rally striking, and fortunately, pretty regular an experience in my backyard.

2004-12-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

church dome parallel to church street
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i have tried for ever to get some photos that capture this dome for this church, and sadly i have still yet to succeed. it is a striking, yet simple dome with very cool, seemingly cracking and disheveled tiles for its roofing. i'm not there yet in getting the dome right, however, this is getting closer to what i see in real life. church dome parallel to church street is a digital of mine taken pretty much from my favorite spot to take photos of downtown. this time, though, rather than shoot north-east (which would yield another dolores park at dusk (for kaye) shot, instead this is taken looking directly due east.

2004-12-19T04:10:00.000-08:00

bloom poem #9 (foto of the detailed final piece)
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although not the most precise of photographs, this picture is what bloom poem #9 looks like after i have hand-detailed it and mounted it on canvas. this is a 10" X 14" reproduction of what is usually a 15" X 21" image. sorry about the unnecessary glare. the yellow border is just yellow masking tape -- when i was finishing up the corners, however, the blue ink kind of spilled and before i could stop the blue, it has created as small puddle as can be seen on the left hand side of the piece. i liked the puddle, painted the blue around the edges, scraped some of it off and before i knew it, i had a final version that was really striking. so i kept it as is.

2004-12-19T04:03:00.000-08:00

bloom image #9 (for maria)
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if you scroll down about 22 images (to one posted 11/28), you can see how bloom image #9 (for maria) has been altered by my hand-detailing. while this image is usually a 9" X 12" piece, the rendition done here is 10" X 14." bloom image #9 (for maria) was made for a really great person who saw my art by way of americablog.com. all said and done, it is really quite amazing. the varnish i used to finalize the piece was actually plastic dip, a sort of liquid, fast-drying clear plastic that one uses on tool handles, etc. it makes for a great finish and also lets you touch the art with no fear of messing it up. this piece has a great home now in southern california!

2004-12-13T23:08:00.000-08:00

six mini-golden gate bridges
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six mini-golden gate bridges is a fun 8 X 10 small rendition of the larger piece 6 different versions of the same bridge for jordan. the photograph from which i developed the image was a gift from my friend jordan who happens to be one of the most talented young photographers i have ever been lucky enough to be friends with. what attracted me to jordan's photo and which i intentionally emphasized in this piece (and its much larger parent) was the fog. it is almost as if it is eating or shrouding a specific part of the bridge. but i digress. i have pasted below most of the individual panels which make up the big parent piece.

2004-12-13T23:07:00.002-08:00

one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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each of the individual renditions of the golden gate bridge image is 8.5" X 11" so that when put together, they make for a 17" X 33" image (six different versions of the same bridge for jordan). this image and the next four are both details from this larger piece as well as free-standing images in their own right.

2004-12-13T23:07:00.001-08:00

one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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8.5" X 11"

2004-12-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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8.5" X 11"

2004-12-13T23:06:00.001-08:00

one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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you guessed it... 8.5" X 11"

2004-12-13T23:06:00.000-08:00

one of the images for "six mini-golden gate bridges"
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this is my favorite of the panels. i can't say exactly who or when, but this version reminds me of a very distinct california advertising style, very northern california to be as imprecise in my precision as possible. just as i think of currier & ives as winter and new england, whatever this style's name and whomever this style owes its look to, i always see it and think "berkeley, beat poet, san francisco, city lights, chez panisse." anyone know the style i am in homage to in this?

2004-12-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

still life: shoes, altoids, socks & hanger
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the single shot that is now still life: shoes, altoids, socks & hanger is from a digital photograph i took by accident. it really is just a pair of my shoes, a tin of (empty) altoids), my favorite pair of socks and a white clothes hanger that should be in the closet. still life: shoes, altoids, socks & hanger is my triptych's triptych (the title too being nine syllables, one for each image in the finally image). it just came to me that my predilection for fractals and closure, or at the very least -- repetition, is so far the only consistency i see in my stuff. nevertheless, this image is 21" X 27"

2004-12-06T21:47:00.001-08:00

turtles for susan
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the original photograph that turtles for susan is based on is not my own photo. it is, it would stand to reason, susan's photo. and it is. from ravello, italy. just one amazingly wonderful fountain, turtles, naked guys, an empty piazza and what appears to be the outline from the aol figurine from television. this picture and the one for permutations were both given to me by susan and this image, for a lot of special reasons, is dedicated to her. it is 8.5" X 11." this image happened quite by accident also, and on the same night that still life happened except that unlike still life, this photo was intentional; my futzing around with it to get this final image is what was by happenstance.

if by chance that the person now reading this is by chance the girl (with the geography trivia) who sat in front of me on the jet blue flight to nyc thursday morning (from oakland), this is what the image looked like before i colored it and gave it to you. i hope you enjoy it.

2004-12-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

for you a pair of broken angel wings
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this is one instance where nothing i try does this image justice. for you a pair of broken angel wings is one of the pieces i am most proud of; the poem also, although there is most assuredly a disconnect between the image for this piece and the point of poem. the central image is actually a photo a friend sent a bunch of us by way of an e-mail of a single cherry blossom out his window. i really wanted to work with the photo, got his permission and about two months later, this is what emerged. there are seven pairs of images , in three columns, with the center column's pair being the same to its left and right, (to the left it has been desaturated; to the right it has been inverted). past/present/future... morning/noon/night... want/have/need... yesterday/today/tomorrow... before/during/after... memory/fact/revision... etc. seven pairs for seven days (a.m. and p.m.).

the image is really big. 3' X 4' the poem runs down the far-right side of the image, like a feather, like the greek myth, like sadness.

because i can't seem to get a good rendition of the whole piece here, below i have uploaded all seven pairs of the image that make up the whole. and, below, are two excerpts from my poem for you a pair of broken angel wings which is in, of, a part of and apart from the image...

(----)

When I wrestle control from my fears
That is when I succeed in redress
Your legacy still haunts me
Whereas I once had whole thoughts
I now cobble it all together in half-breaths,
These fragments only cohere because of commas and dashes.
Were my life spoken absent these Id float
Float un-tethered I float broken. You stole wholeness,
You left me with my stuttering again intact.

(----)

If I could give you a gift my deepest hope would be this:
To be granted permission to hand to you in heaven
The wings that make you an angel
And as I hand them to you I break them,
Like you to me I snap their knuckles, like you to me limp
Id make useless your wings, impotent and ugly
For you I would fashion a pair of broken angel wings
Unflinching I stand as you disappear out of my sight
Through clouds and wind and memory leaving me with silence.

2004-12-06T21:43:00.002-08:00

angel wings (detail #1)
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10" X 14"

2004-12-06T21:43:00.001-08:00

angel wings (detail #2)
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2004-12-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

angel wings (detail #3)
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2004-12-06T21:42:00.002-08:00

angel wings (detail #4)
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2004-12-06T21:42:00.001-08:00

angel wings (detail #5)
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2004-12-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

angel wings (detail #6)
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2004-12-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

angel wings (detail #7)
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2004-11-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

gambling w/ our lives he said (for mister man)
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this image is 3' X 3' and dedicated to mister man. gambling w/ our lives he said is a poem i wrote in 1996, the title being the response i got when i told someone that when we fall in love we gamble with our hearts. "no," he said back to me "we gamble with our lives." that phrase has stuck with me ever since. the image has about 30 separate photos nested in it -- like the disa orchid photo of mine in the lower right-hand corner. the central piece -- the swirls -- represent logan square in philadelphia. while not technically a square (it is a circle), the artist who designed the fountain -- calder (he is the father of the contemporary mobile artist and the son of the artist who helped design philadelphia's city hall) -- also has a shakespeare sculpting adjacent to the fountain. so, between the three nymphs in his fountain and the shakespeare sculpture, i figured it was a much a square as its name stated. if you stand in logan square and look behind you, you can see city hall (calder's dad's work) and if you look ahead of you, you see the philadelphia museum where the calder mobiles hang (his son's work). so there was a tremendous sense of lineage in that spot, the spot where i had my first date with mister man (i slipped and fell into the fountain, if you must know). that kind of familial fractal is the resonant theme of the image. each of the smaller swirls in the center of the image have a photo in them (each swirl standing for one of the nymphs and the fourth for the shakespeare sculpting). the other major, recognizable image is the transamerica building here in sf, where we moved (me back home, mister man for the first time). he loved sf. so it is only fitting that its icon be so prominent. the poem is there in the lower left-hand corner and it can be read clearly in its entirety even when the image is reduced to 50% its real size. the three line excerpt from wedding sonata is from this poem. one other comment – after glenn died and when we were cleaning out his apartment as well as going through photos of his, i came across a photo he took of me when we first moved here to sf. i had no idea this picture existed until it literally fell into my lap. if you look just above the poem, you can see that photograph.

2004-11-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

bloom in dublin - primary image
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bloom in dublin is an 18-poem autobiography which i gave my mom several years ago. since then i have edited all the poems, added four addendum stories and now have completely illustrated the whole work. the entire work is 25 panels in all, and each panel is 21” X 15." i should complicate this right now by adding that within the actual "story" panel itself, there are 3 distinct images which make up that panel -- the core image from a photograph of mine of chinese scroll (see below), the poem nested into a smaller version of the core image, and a background collage of the various renditions of the core image. the exception in all of this, size-wise, is the poem nested into a smaller version of the core image (it's 12" X 9").

i've uploaded 5 panels from this piece. bloom refers to not just the flower, but also to james joyce's protagonist leopold bloom. ulysses is set in dublin (hence bloom being set in dublin) and having been raised proudly irish, on top of my one-day-with-out-a-map-finding-leopold-bloom's-fictional-home-when-in-dublin, it all just made sense. the half-way point of the 18 poems is the shortest poem i have ever written (2 lines, 11 words) while the final poem of the 18 is the longest of all of them in this piece (rewritten to about three times the original length).

the core image for all 25 panels is a photograph of mine of a 2-panel chinese scroll painting. i am sincerely indebted to mrs. ogata for allowing me the chance to photograph it. i would be remiss if i didn't acknowledge my mom's acquiescing and letting me break our agreement about when this poem/image could be seen by anyone other than the two of us. the subject matter of the poem (as a whole poem in 22 pieces) is personal, honest and at times not very pleasant, but it is the what it is to be human.

2004-11-28T14:46:00.001-08:00

bloom - story 1
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2004-11-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

bloom - image 4
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2004-11-28T14:45:00.001-08:00

bloom - image 9
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2004-11-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

bloom - addendum a
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2004-11-24T14:40:00.000-08:00

half sonnets 1, 2, and 3 in a row (self-portrait)
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half sonnet I & half sonnet II & half sonnet III
half sonnets 1, 2 amd 3 in a row (self portrait) is the final displaying of the half sonnet poems that i wrote in 1997. each image is 8.5" X 11" so, the full, 9 piece image is 25.5" X 33." what is in the background of each of the self-portraits is actually cool: in #1, the poster to raise money for the legal defense fund for the white night riots is the yellow/red border, as well as the outline of the cat in the hat; in #2, there is a poster from paris, france. and my big chin -- (OK, that one is not so interesting, except the irish country sea is imbedded into the image too); and in #3 is of course dolores park, san francisco, along with a few tiny jewel weeds which run along the border of the bottom of the image. the jewel weed is an impatiens which is a great antidote for poison ivy. it's also called the "touch me not" flower as well as the "poor man's orchid." if you've ever seen them after they've bloomed and if you've touched the seed pod, you know why these guys are such cool plants. and yes, each poem is a half sonnet not by rhyme scheme but by virtue of being 7 lines (a sonnet is 14 lines) and they all have something to do with love (i always associate sonnets with love, although that is not always the case -- i.e. "dulce et decorum est" by wilfred owen).

2004-11-24T14:39:00.000-08:00

wedding sonata (for pam and judd)
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while a few years late in the giving, this piece, wedding sonata, is dedicated to my friends pam and judd. this image (which is only a mere 20" X 25") contains a 3-line excerpt from a poem of mine (gambling w/our lives he said which is also the title of a poem/image in memory of mister man). the three line excerpt fit these two perfectly. the image is based on a photograph from their pre-wedding preparations, except i only kept the outline of them, since their silhouette is what moved me to write the poem wedding sonata which only pam and judd have. this image was 1/2 the gift and is the public displayed image -- the poem, a sonata, is the other 1/2 of the gift and is separately and privately illustrated for them -- and of which they have the only copy too. you can make out a smidge of the 5 poem gift -- it is the line running down the left side of the image; the wedding invitation is what runs down the right side. and i did get permission to use the small image of pam and judd playing from the cartoonist. this is one of my favorite images that i've done.

the three lines of the poem read:

hands that hold are hands of god
tears fall rolling down my cheek
you kiss the tears out of my eyes and they are gone

2004-11-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

halfpound4brenda
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halfpound4brenda is 8.5" X 11" and is basically 1/2 of my other poem illustrated, for ez. i halved the image as a gift for a friend and this is dedicated to brenda. the chinese ideogram in the center of the image translates into "plum blossoms resemble bright stars." this image by the way is entirely hand-made, no photos at all. this phrase and portion of this image is also the same image from the saturday flower from the week in flowers. my poem for ez (ez being ezra pound) runs along the left side of the image while one of era pound's last-recorded cantos of his life is in the lower right hand corner.

2004-11-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

the penultimate moment (for nora)
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the penultimate moment is a very daunting piece, both in terms of its creation and its final size. full size, it measures 30” X 54” (2.5’ X 4.5’). the poem and illustration are both dedicated to my grammy, nora. this is not the only version of this illustration; the original can be seen in this final piece. months later i returned back to the image and realized the scale was wrong, too small. however, the simple process of resizing and augmenting this image was not to be simple at all. my lap top died. then the loaner lap top died. on top of all of that, the image was just too big for my memory on the lap top, so a few times even my photoshop program crashed. all in all, this illustration took over a full working month to finalize. the celtic knot that can be seen throughout the image is not a celtic knot at all, but a fractal of my mom, nora and her husband, my grampy, walking into the church for my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary. the photo one set in rows with itself and morphed becomes a very wild celtic know, often intimating a celtic cross. when i wrote the penultimate moment it was really after hearing my grammy’s voice, clearly, even though she had been dead for years. but things like that happen in our family, at least with nora, con, leller and ger. in the final image i have nested a photo of my mom and aunt, ages 5 and 3. suffice it to say the photo tells a lifetime in a snapshot. there is also a great photo of my grampy standing next to his truck when he worked for the city of chicago. he was a proud, tough, lucky and bedeviling man, as she was a soft, quixotic, mysterious and devoted woman. and as it turns out, my penultimate moment with my grammy was at her 50th wedding anniversary. it was a traditional irish wedding party. to the nines. nora and i danced. she said something to the effect of “i’ll lead but it will look like i am following. just follow what i do.” and with that, we danced. i can still remember her glasses, hands, voice (she did almost sing her greeting), her eccentricities. while i have a fairly good memory, when it comes to my grammy, i draw a very mediocre hand. she is my achille’s heel when it comes to my photographic memory. but, i try the best i can to at least approximate what i felt transpired. she always seemed more in-between what was said and what was expected, anyway. it is indeed that moment just before the last one that either haunts or calms. i miss her dearly.

2004-11-24T14:31:00.001-08:00

for ez
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for ez is one of the first images i ever illustrated (ez = ezra pound, the greatest american poet ever, regardless of how whacked and odd he was, and in spite of his virulent and asinine anti-semitism). i managed to keep the original version in some format in the final version, as it runs down the center of the poem separating the 2 covers of the open book. in recasting the image, it struck me how pound's closing cantos -- while by no means reparative-- were redemptive. not one to admit being wrong, not one to ask for help, not one to ever suggest hurt or loneliness, and yet comes the phrase “let the gods forgive…/let those I love try to forgive…” and yet, even in the defeat brought on by his own hubris, pound remains so, so cranky.

the image that is the entirety of my saturday flower from the week in flowers is a five-character chinese ideogram, as brought to us by ernest fenellossa. pound is to have seen this ideogrammatic statement and was able to translate it on the spot, without having ever studied chinese in his life. it could be that it was another ideogrammatic passage or ideogram, but that is not really the point. there was an incident where pound was able to translate without having studied and it might as well have been this one. once i had finished the saturday flower i realized that the image was perfect for the illustration of for ez. in 1991, i spent an entire afternoon on san michele, the island cemetery off venice, italy. it is not lost on me that pound was buried on an island. his grave is simple and dignified, a bit unkempt and very still. the echo of for ez in the background of the image is in memory of that afternoon and i hope the image pays my due respect to my poetic mentor.

2004-11-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

tower poem
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2004-11-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

canto X: valentine's day eve
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2004-11-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

a simple move of the second hand (for liddy)
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while one of my favorite images, this one is probably the least shown, owing both to the person for whom, to whom, and because of whom it is dedicated and completed, namely my cousin liddy. the poem nested into the image a simple move of the second hand is part of the trilogy of time and space of which 2 of the 3 poems/illustrations are complete. the other finished poem/illustration from the trilogy is the end of the ride. meanwhile, the third, syncopated melodies, is still in rewrite until miss byron returns. then it will be completed.

in both a simple move of the second hand and the end of the ride, there is a shared image, namely a fire hydrant (courtesy of moose, whose photograph of the fire hydrant he has allowed me to use and whose original photograph is brilliant). since all three poems deal with death, loss, time and meaning, i found the fire hydrant in the desert image (moose's photo) to be quite droll and understating.

obviously, the title of the poem refers to the second hand of a clock, marking the passing of time in seconds, and the echo-play on second and seconds is intentional. what differentiates a hand shake from an embrace is the second hand. stuff like that. i had lost some very dear friends of mine when the poem was written (including reggie and chuck) and by the time the image was being put together, by then liddy. so, the image is a blend of some of my favorite and most important friends and colleagues and family. i guess that is why it remains finished, and socked away. because the reproduction of the full image is pretty much crap (size issues -- this is a big image, almost 3' X 4'), i have pasted and will paste more examples of the framing image which makes up this. it is a digital photo of the corner of my house, and there are 12 of them (for each month) and in each of the 12 months is nested the name of a friend. etc.

oh and before i forget, because the issue is really important, please check out the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative website (http://www.liddyshriversarcomainitiative.org/). liddy was amazing. as she dealt with her own ewing's sarcoma, she never stopped trying to help. using the web (it helped that she was truly brilliant -- and it didn't hurt that she was truly caring) and with assistance from her really amazing husband, dad, mom and brothers, liddy did everything she could to try to educate people about and to try to beat cancer. unfortunately, liddy died from ewing's sarcoma in january 2004. our last e-mail exchange was when she wrote at the end of december 2003 apologizing that -- contrary to plans and our conversations -- she was going to have to postpone her trip out to the west coast over the winter holidays because she wanted to make sure her health was strong enough and all that.

[sigh]

in the image there is a private joke of sorts that we shared, from a dinner she and i had over a decade ago in san francisco. all i will say is that if you find the pair of glasses in the image, then you've got great eyes.

2004-11-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

april-liddy
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2004-11-10T04:50:00.001-08:00

permutation4, ravello
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2004-11-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

permutation3, ravello
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permutation, ravello is based on a photograph sent to me by one of my closest friends in the universe from, surprise surprise, ravello, italy. the four variations are all here (one is spring, one summer, one autumn and one winter, although i decided to not label them so obviously). each image is 5" X 7."

2004-11-10T04:49:00.001-08:00

permutation2, ravello
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2004-11-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

permutation1, ravello
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2004-11-10T04:45:00.000-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (vXray)
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at last count, there were more than 30 versions of this image (24 of which are here). this image is from a photograph of mine and is aptly titled a view downtown by way of the park. i took the photo one afternoon, just one block north (downhill thankfully) from my front door looking out towards downtown. each one of these is 5" X 7" and what you can't see is that when i hand-colour these ones, whichever song is blaring on my stereo is incorporated into the final image, by way of a line or two of said song. i have not done as many variations on an image as i have done with this one, but the subject matter lends itself to a lot of fun versions. NOTE -- this was my first non-poem image that used a photograh of mine.

2004-11-10T04:43:00.001-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (v7b1)
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2004-11-10T04:43:00.000-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (v7b)
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2004-11-10T04:42:00.001-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (b&w)
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2004-11-10T04:42:00.000-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (original)
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2004-11-10T04:40:00.001-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (v.3.0)
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2004-11-10T04:40:00.000-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (vt.1.2)
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2004-11-10T04:39:00.001-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (vclouds)
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2004-11-10T04:39:00.000-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (v1.t)
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2004-11-10T04:38:00.000-08:00

a view downtown by way of the park (whistler)
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