Old Postcard

Man, check out that facial hair! Make up your own translation for the undecipherable writing...

Self Portrait in Nicaragua

Self Portrait on Five Dollar Bill

Emancipate yourself











free your mind

Self Portrait on Wood

Here's a detail from a painting I've just finished.

Bar Game #1

I learned how to play this bar game while living in England.

The "WELCOME BACK, KOTTER" Dollar

Art vs. Craft. It's hard to explain the difference. I mean, a piece of pottery can be an honest-to-God work of art and at the same time one can buy a painting, thinking it's art, and it's really a craft. The line between the two blurs but, if you look carefully, there is a difference. It has to do with aesthetic concerns versus production values. I'll attempt to explain the difference by using examples from my travels to Latin America to illustrate my point.

Of the two countries I'm familiar with, Ecuador consistently had higher quality work than Nicaragua (which I found strange because I found Nicaragua to be more "developed" than Ecuador). The little painting above I bought from a gentleman on the street in Quito. "Tipica" is the term used for regional latin art and this exemplifies Ecuadoran art - pastoral theme with a volcano in the distance. While it's artist probably produces thousands of these tiny paintings, if you take a look you'll see a concern for composition, repetitive elements and color (the pink and red garb is complementary to the green and blue landscape)which are all aesthetic elements found in "art". Also, this gentleman had a whole tray of these tipica paintings and each was different - I picked this one amid a number of other choices.

Now, look at this painting I bought at the airport in Managua just before we left Nicaragua. Now, I could have picked out one that looked exactly this one but in a green or blue dress. The fact is, I picked this one out because she was in a bar - I'm a bartender. All over Nicaragua were paintings of this same woman with the big booty but in other settings - wading in oceans and sitting on toilets were two that stuck out in my mind. The same dark haired buxom woman posed the same way exposing the same big booty painted on thousands of canvases in Nicaragua. I suppose they must sell - hell, I bought one - but this painting lacks some of the sophistication found in the tiny one from Ecuador. I looked for one that showed a little more originality or quality in the markets but I settled for one that looked exactly like all the rest. This painting cracks my ass up but qualifies as a craft in my book - quantity at the sake of quality.

Now, check out this painting I bought at a market in Quito. Click on it and check it out close-up. Talk about quality.Even though this artist has probably painted hundreds or even thousands of pastoral scenes with a volcano - each is different, with its own compositional problems to solve. There were huge elaborate paintings - just beautiful - but this small gem fit my budget and in my suitcase.

I don't mean to imply that Nicaragua didn't have beautiful paintings because there were some exquisite pieces but out of the reach of my fiscal arm. Ecuador's art just seemed more consistently finer over the whole cost spectrum.

I'll be sure to post more examples, later.