Arts and crafts
2019
Broadway, Tivoli NY.
Some lock-down sketching
2018
This painting is inspired by the famous "Eye Idols" of Tell Brak.
The original Eye Idols are thought to be not idols per se, but rather votive offerings to the deity of the place, with the composition of each group reflecting the family that brought it to the temple. I wanted to explore this theme in my work, re-imagining these votive groups as a slightly more contemporary piece.
"Biology program at Bard, as of 2018"; painted for Dr. Emily Pollina. Each inset corresponds to a Bard Biology professor and their research. If you look real close, you can also recognize the RKC science building; the Hudson River, Catskills; the New England Aster (just because it looks nice); and a short (unreadable) excerpt from Emily's syllabus.
Learning to landscape. On the road from Clermont NY to Tivoli NY.
2017
On the road from Tivoli NY to Nevis NY.
Stonybrook creek near Kidds lane in Tivoli NY.
2016
Unknown god
This piece is inspired by cast amulets of Permian animal style, which is a variety of animal style artifacts produced around 5th century AD by Komi people (Finno-Ugric people in modern Russia). The original artifacts I adopted the motif from can be seen here (or you can as well just Google "Пермский звериный стиль" and look at the images).
Unknown god. This piece is inspired by cast amulets of Permian animal style, which is a variety of animal style artifacts produced around 5th century AD by Komi people (Finno-Ugric people in modern Russia). The original artifacts I adopted the motif from can be seen here (or you can as well just Google "Пермский звериный стиль" and look at the images).
What I find most amusing about these artifacts is that they clearly have a well-developed iconography, with a male person (god? hero? hunter?) riding on a horse (or moose?), carrying some moose (or horse?) heads, treading on some chthonic beasts (that also happen to semi-swallow each other), being led by a goose (or duck?), and followed by a wolf (or dog?). Allegedly on at least one artifact he is also seen carrying sun and moon in his hands.
And yet we absolutely don't know what all of this means! There are no written sources from that era (5th century AD). The mythology of Komi kept developing in 1500 years that separate us from these artifacts, and while some vague motifs may still be there, by now they are almost unrecognizable. We don't know the place of this hunter figure in the pantheon; we don't now whether there was a pantheon; we are not sure what the name of this hero was. We can speculate about the importance of moose in these pictures, but it is all just that - speculations! We don't even know whether it is a personal charm, or an artifact of more solemn significance. We just don't know! And for some reason I really like this fact!
The long piece. The third panel contains nothing for now, but I'm considering adding a bird's skull there later.
2012
Xenopus gigantis tadpoles in Providence harbor, around 1868
(Click the image to see a larger version)
2011
2010
