Abstract Expressionism - Blog Posts
black sharpie on bond paper
Hollywood 2018
When your mind wanders, follow it.
black sharpie on bond paper
Hollywood 2018
black sharpie on bond paper
Hollywood 2018
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Deep enough
black sharpie
Los Angeles 2012
If you look deep enough into space, you can see the universe as it was just after the beginning of time.
Before any of this shit happened.
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Ballpoint pen, Calbayog City, 2024
Ballpoint pen, Calbayog City, 2024
Ballpoint pen, Calbayog City, 2024
Our bedroom floor, Calbayog City, 2024
Our bathroom wall, Calbayog City, 2024
Recent drawings and photos.
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black pen & colored pencils, los angeles, 2013
Lines go where they want to. That's life.
There is no such thing as an incorrect line until another line is drawn next to it.
Colors, on the other hand, are like flavors.
Alpha Blonde - Jerusalem
black pen & colored pencils, los angeles, 2015
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felt tip pen on cardboard
Alhambra 1988
I drew this at a party one night in 1988. There was a pen and a piece of cardboard on a table so I sat down and drew this, with everyone partying around me. It's filled with nervous energy because I was.
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One / One
Black sharpie on paper
Monrovia 1996
I drew this in 1996. I spent a few days on it and when it was done I didn't like it so I immediately put it in a drawer and forgot about.
Twenty-two years later, in 2018, I was going though old piles and I found it. I had completely forgotten about it. It was an amazing find. I had not seen or even thought about this drawing since the moment I had finshed it.
And, I'll be honest with you, I fell in love with it.
I fell in love with it as I would somone wonderful, someone who I had thoughtlessly lost, but who had then, by some miracle, come back into my life.
And forgiven me.
1/1 - Brian Eno
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black sharpie, Monrovia 1998
Another swirl drawing. I put those gaps in the lines just because I thought it would look cool but then the drawing took on a completely unexpected life. I was surprised.
Drawing those big swirls was a challenge. I remember feeling neurotic about them not being perfect. A couple of them still bug me. I'm a nut. :))
Orange Skies - Love
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Thank you so much for posting all your art on here. I have just found you for the first time and your art is simply beautiful to me. I first saw the beautiful pink and blue piece that looks like stained glass and it made me feel so peaceful and serene that I came to your page and looked at everything else you have made as well. I will buy one as soon as I can afford art on top of rent. You have an absolute gift, and I hope I keep seeing your pieces :)
Thank you, Anonymous. That means a lot to me. ❤️
Midnights after getting home
Watercolor and sharpie
Westwood 1985
Each time you fall in love
Coloredpencil and Watercolor
Monrovia 1996
I made this drawing in 1996.
When I drew it, by the grace of God, I had been free form alcohol for one incredible year and I remember, so clearly, that as I drew, I was feeling a deep new creative surge born of hope.
Life is an epic journey my friends.
Each time you fall in love - Cigarettes after sex
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Coral reef
colored pencil (inverse colors)
Los Angeles 2015
For years I worked pretty much exclusively in black and white using a black sharpie. Then one day, around 2011, I showed a bunch of my pieces to my brother who looked at them and simply said,
"Your work needs more color."
Pissed. Me. Off...
In anger I went out and bought a bunch of colored pencils and had at it.
I'm really glad he said that to me.
Arizona
colored pencil (inverse colors)
Los Angeles 2016
Message to Michael - Dionne Warwick
Just because I love this song.
We're going on a road trip today. Up to the north coast of the Island. We'll pack the van with my kids and ten or so cousins. And lots of food. And have fun 🤣
Let me tell you about blue...
The Pacific ocean is so beautiful.
Mystery and manifestation
Black sharpie on paper
Los Angeles 2022
Mystery and manifestation
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
- Lao Tsu
Zero 7 - Warm Sound
colored pencil & pen, calbayog city, 2024
My 5 yo daughter asked for a drawing with pink in it so I drew this. She says she likes it.
My brother, on the other hand, said he liked it more when it was unfinished and still had some white areas.
Maybe..
Luckily I took an in progress photo.
Time for coffee.
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Black sharpie on paper
Los Angeles 2015
I like this drawing.
I know the signature is upside down.
But so is the drawing.
Destiny - Zero 7
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A blue, so long ago
colored pencil and black sharpie
Calbayog City 2024
The Philippine Sea is a deep almost violet blue.
It came to me in a dream once.
And now I'm here.
But I'm not there.
And isn't that where I've always been?
This drawing is pretty much done, but it's not done.
In any case, I've moved on to the next piece.
Write that on my tombstone.
Samar, Philippines 2024
Akae Beka - The Earth is the Lord
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Nougbo Vehou
This really blows me away. Going back I'm finding that I like my colored pieces better in black & white than in the original color. SMH
This really bothers me.
Next day...
It's not that I don't like the drawing's color. It's more that the drawing becomes lost in the colors and it becomes flat
Back when I did this drawing I wanted my drawings to have no there there. Nothing to suggest a shape other than the image in its entirely.
But now looking at it I want something to define something.
I'm going to do another one of these to show you what I mean.
Kind of Pink
Colored pencil
Los Angeles 2015
Aluminum can #1
Watercolor and pen
Los Angeles 2016
A friend of mine once told me that she liked Mark Rothko because she liked how he applied paint.
That got me thinking.
What I need, I thought, is a simple image to serve as a vehicle for the application of paint.
With this thought in mind I began painting fantasy aluminum cans.
Some of them turned out very pretty.
Here's another one.
Aluminum can #2
Watercolor and pen
Los Angeles 2016
These days I'm not so ambitious. When I want to apply pigment I just freakin' apply it.
All blue
Colored pencil and alcohol
Calbayog City 2024
Early mornings
black sharpie and water color
Westwood 1986
Let me try to explain myself.
When I was a young man I loved illustration.
Perhaps the two illustrators who had the greatest influence on me were Aubrey Beardsley and Jean Giraud aka Moebius. Both artist drew with a fine line and I tried to emulate that.
Here's an old drawing of mine.
pencil drawing
Venice CA 1978
So back then I saw myself as an illustrator.
Then sometime around 1980 I was introduced to Abstract Expressionism and I had an epiphany...
Could I approach Abstract Expressionism with an illustrator's line?
A new world opened up to me and I started having fun with my drawing.
And then, for about 35 years I never drew an identifiable object.
No joke.
Still Life
black sharpie
Westwood 1985
Attitude Adjustment
pen, colored pencil and watercolor
Duarte CA 1996
Time never began
black sharpie on bond paper
San Francisco 2003
Dan's drawing
black sharpie
Rosemead 2011
i did a lot of these drawings. And I really enjoyed making them. For over thirty years I completely liberated myself from the rigors of drawing something that had to look like something. And I loved it. But then...
Sometime around 2015 I returned to illustration. Why? I'll be honest with you, I started to miss it.
Call it full circle but that's where I'm at now.
I still treasure my line though.
little boxes
black sharpie on paper
Los Angeles 2019
Thank you Aubrey and Jean.
Aubrey Beardsley
Jean Giraud aka Moebius
So very lonely
Black sharpie on paper
Los Angeles 2016
De Kooning once said, "In order for art to work the finished piece needs to at least look better than the original blank canvas."
I think de Kooning said that.
Maybe I imagined it.
In that case I said it.
I don't know.
The Rolling Stones- 2000 Lightyears from home
colored pencil & pen, Los Angeles 2016
I'm a big admirer of Paul Klee.
I don't think Klee ever used this motif but as I drew this I was thinking about him.
Embrionic Journey - Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane)
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A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token.
Mark Rothko, Statement
I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one’s arms again.
Mark Rothko, The Romantics Were Prompted...
Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man, or 'life,' we are making it out of ourselves
Barnett Newman, The Sublime is Now
