One of my intentions for my blog is to tell the stories of my paintings. Everyone has a story real or imagined of how and why it came to be. I realized the other day I had accidentally omitted two paintings from one of my pages- People. So here are the paintings and their stories.
Both were painted during the same time period, I like to refer to it as “The Mr Jones Period.” I had taken some time off from college to work and play. I also painted a lot.
One day, my friend Dustin asked me if I had heard the Counting Crows song Mr. Jones. With the last name of Jones, of course I had, a lot, people just felt compelled to sing it to me. I really kind of hated it. He then told me it reminded him of me, particularly the verse-
Well I’m a paint my picture
Paint myself in blue, red, black and gray
All of the beautiful colors are very, very meaningful
Yeah, well you know, gray is my favorite color
I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play
Reflecting on that conversation, I learned a few important things:
- I really actually like the song Mr Jones
- I have a life long desire to be “someone just a little more funky”
- My paintings at the time were dominated by blue, red, black, and gray
So, on to the paintings
The first is La Petite Morph (above.) The title is a take off the French term for orgasm- La Petite Mort or The Little Death (see I did learn something in french class.) The morph part is the figures joining together. I have to admit as a young male, I was more then a little interested in the concept of joining together.
Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
And we stare at the beautiful women
I was into the idea of large color fields at the time. Trying to find the balance between graphic/comic art and fine art. Discover that perfect simplicity of shape and color. I also liked to paint fast. I felt it was important to complete a painting prior to my overall mood changing. I seldom spent more then a week on a piece, often only a day or two. I felt the truth of moment needed to be captured quickly.
Which brings me to painting two- Rainy Day Woman

This painting was all about mood, the demons that haunt us all. I believe the title has as much to do with the real life atmospheric conditions occurring at the time as it does the atmosphere I tried to create. And talk about red, blue, gray, and black.
I liked the subject because it showed a woman in an oriental style dress. I was influenced by Asia things at the time, like Zen Painting, the Tao and Buddhism.
Help me believe in anything
‘Cause I, I wanna be someone who believes
I still appreciate Asia, probably even more now that I have visited. I like the way new experiences and new culture have blended into my art and my life (which really are one.) It’s one of the ways I try to be a little more funky.
Sha la, la, la, la, la, la, la
Yeah
Uh, huh
Yeah