office monsters

Here are some recent drawings from the studio. All are made with a combination of graphite, colored pencil and ink on 4"x6" index cards.

Tracing Utopia: My Street, My Office

Photos below of the recent drawing on the left and right side walls of my office space on Broadway in Manhattan. The dissolving, almost melting images represent the street in Brooklyn where I live. The outside of my neighborhood comes inside, inviting and invading into the sterile yellow office space. Images of urban life such as piles of trash awaiting pick up, street lights, safety cones are broken into liquid like shapes and lines. The automobile and motorcycle, both strong symbols of masculinity and achievement are shown equally as broken.

Post Dauphin Open Studios

Another Day at the Office

18th floor looking out onto NYC street. Times Square in the distance, a position of power, a birds-eye view of the hustle. The street is like a canyon with sirens and shouts and footsteps. I stare out at it all day long from within my yellow-walled computer palace, daydreaming.

painting in progress, 4'x3' oil on canvas

"Power Positions" paintings, 10"x 10", oil on wood panels

"Together in the Daylight (an office romance)", 12"x12", oil on wood panel

Art is a Gift Part 2: Pieces of Home

This project began a water color painting of my family home in California, which was then cut into 6 8"x10" pieces. Each piece was framed and wrapped in generic brown paper. Each of my four siblings, my parents, and myself opened a gift to reveal a piece to reside in each of our homes which spread from California, Colorado, to Alabama and New York City.

text portion:

You hold a piece of our collected memories

A sectioned piece of our unity.

The home is a place for dreams, daydreams, a symbol of future hope.

This childhood home holds many memories for each of us

But still it is a place that makes us connected,

That brings us together from different places and lives.

Hold onto this portion of the painting, hang it in your home,

And always know that each of us holds a unique piece

And without it the picture would not be whole.

cutting in studio

framed, all together

Art is a Gift

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
-- Pablo Picasso



The end of this year allowed for an engagement in art-making as gift-making. This year I wished to create some projects which I found to be both personally satisfying in terms of process and interpretation, but also resulted in giftable objects. The first of these involved creating 8 unique t-shirts for each of my nieces and nephews in a project titled Childhood Idols.

Each shirt was hand-drawn using fabric markers and features a cameo-style portrait of each child. The shirts, when worn, reiterate the uniqueness of each individual in both the portrait and the spirit in which it is displayed as wearable art. I believe the child-like experience of making art is one of the most true and often the most pleasurable modes to exist in. It is to appreciate the act of creation in the moment of creating, and to have a pride in the display of your creation. I was proud to share these objects with the most receptive art audience: children.

project images:

sister and brother cameos: Taylor & Noah

idols or rock stars


the best art audience/pint-sized performers
Orange County, CA. 2010

there is an empty space where you used to be

"Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. There are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing."
— Miranda July (No One Belongs Here More Than You)