Scale
Acrylic, charcoal, paper on wood panel. 12 x 12 in. 2026.

The Desert Art Center has closed for the summer, and I finished the season there with the sale of this recent work which I titled “Scale”. It almost was named “Bern”, as thoughts of Paul Klee and the Swiss city where he intermittently resided kept bubbling up while I worked on it. There is an impressive museum there that houses 40% of his entire oeuvre! I will get there someday. I relate to his works and his tireless exploration on so many levels.

Sometimes it’s hard to know how to characterize one’s intersection with the works of artists one admires. A friend whose opinion I respect saw “Scale” along with “Astral Jazz” hanging together in the show at DAC last spring and was reminded of Cy Twombly. I feel a deep connection with Twombly’s work. I don’t know if that means I’m “influenced” by him, exactly. My sense is more of receiving permission to explore certain spaces. These prior artists, like Klee and Twombly, have done the hard work of crossing barriers to new lands and thereby expanding what we know as art, allowing the rest of us more room to move. And seeing what they’ve done in those new lands inspires us.

One thing these two artists had in common was the eloquent use of line, which is catnip for me. They used it quite differently, however. Klee drew with it or created shapes (elegantly!), whereas Twombly was unapologetically gestural or outright used it as text or as a kind of implied text (controversially). I love it all, but for myself I actually try to avoid both drawing and writing in my use of line. I am mostly interested in line as gesture, a linear product of the body, energy, and the moment.

Now that the DAC season is over, the show at the Glass Outhouse concluded, and my travels over for the moment, I’m back at work in the studio. And I have some new ideas and explorations that I’m pursuing. But I find myself also continuing with more of the gesture-based series that includes “Scale” and “Astral Jazz” and that I’ve collected as “Air”. It continues to compel me. I’d like to think I’m getting better at it. I’ve moved it from textured canvas to smooth wood panels, which is a change, but otherwise the elements are the same. And yet, each one is an entirely new journey.

A small update: There is a new zine in the desert called Jackrabbit Journal, and I have some work in their inaugural issue which came out last month. They’ve included three homestead-themed works from across my career, and it’s fun to see them in a contemporary publication with some of the younger creative folks in the Basin. And I like their layout! You can find it around town at Hi-Desert Artists in Yucca Valley, Hey There Projects in Joshua Tree, or Desert General in Twentynine Palms.

Happy Solstice, dear friends! The sun continues!

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