original artworks

This corresponds to an earlier piece on this very site about bidding farewell to an adobe Igloo in a Lawrence, Kansas backyard. The piece ends with the narrator likening himself to a miniature llama/birthday cake decoration that has been moved to a windowsill and given a cidada cowboy as a rider/companion (actually, the hat itself is artistic license). The piece was drawn in summer, but has not yet been publically reproduced until today. Unlike its companion essay, "Goodbye Gloo," the spirit of this piece is believed to be more than pathos. The rendering of a smile on the llama suggests a willingness on part of the artist to move on; to put a happy face on future travels. Upon the piece's unveiling at the Nowhere gallery on 19th and Alaska Streets, one reviewer called it "The song of the open road played by a cicada's kazoo while seated upon the pastel-toned saddle blanket of a miniature llama. Endearingly not-believable."

This piece was made with the usual medley of oil pastels and outdated stamps of a monkey wishing us happy new year.


Most of my drawings could be regarded as "outsider art," in that their expressionistic qualitiy clearly outweighs any real craft. And from time to time, they get made fun of. But validation from the art world is at hand. This drawing was a runner-up in the band Minus Story's "No Rest for Ghosts" art contest. The drawing is part of a 2001 series of oil pastel portraits originally entitled "Rejected Muppets." The series was later incorporated by Jonathan Nagel into his performance at the 2004 Farmer's Ball, to mixed reviews. Someday the series may be displayed here, but only if the curators of fate deem it so, and only if there is an interest on part of the critics and art fans in my reading public (provided such a public exists).