Your work's right to exist doesn't depend on whether you've been validated, or trained, or praised, or paid. It depends on whether you show up for it.
Read MoreSovereignty. Oil on board, 2025.
The Passage, oil on hardboard. 2025.
It Looks So Real: How Much Realism Do You Need?
A friend of mine and I have been arguing about realism in art. It started with a conversation about photo reference. It prompted a larger question in my mind: what makes realism meaningful in the first place? And how much of it does a viewer actually need?
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Lots of beautiful colors within the tertiary range survived the ruthless culling.
Making Pottery Glazes Part II
In 2022, I wrote about beginning to make my own pottery glazes from raw materials. Commercial bottled glazes were convenient, but expensive, and I had an itch to develop something more personal. Over five years of experimentation, I’ve come to understand the qualities I’m after…
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My display wall at IlluXCon where ceramics and 2-d works unabashedly mingle.
IlluXCon 2025
IlluXCon is always a wild, wonderful week—equal parts exhaustion and exhilaration. Held at the GoggleWorks in Reading, it fills three floors with some of the best Imaginative Realism artists working today, and I’m always grateful to be part of that creative storm. 2025 was no exception.
Read MoreHow to Design an Image That Holds the Eye: Principles of Strong Composition
Ever wonder why some images hold your attention while others fall flat? In this post, I share the compositional secrets that make an image unboring—and why our subconscious responds so powerfully to them.
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Fall Bounty, a work that sold during the From The Forest” show.
"From The Forest" Show
The Manor Mill Gallery in Monkton, MD (say that fast three times!) was the perfect venue for From the Forest. Nestled in Maryland’s rolling hills, the Mill is surrounded by woodland and hiking trails—an ideal setting for a forest-themed show.
Read MoreBackfeeding: When One Medium Feeds Another
Some of my sigil tiles sprouted wings—so naturally, the paintings had to follow. In this post, I share how clay sketches began transforming into small oil paintings, carrying the Eye of Providence and other symbols into dreamlike new forms.
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Wonderful Commission Work, Part 3: Winter
Winter is the third panel in the Seasons series for my friends, a lovely couple who now live in Arkansas. We met several years ago at an art conference and they were there as avid fans of imaginative realist art. They found my work and subsequently invited us to visit them. Sometime after that, they commissioned this series.
Read MoreSigil tiles for Lughnasadh
I’ve been having a lot of fun with the sigil series lately. I especially enjoy making them in rhythm with the seasons—letting each one echo the mood of the turning year.
Lughnasadh is a time of harvest, of gathering what’s grown, and of giving thanks for all that has carried us this far.
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The sigil, Peace, because presence begins with a benevolent gaze. Part of the ongoing Sigil series, 2025.
"Why All the Eyes?" The Eye of Providence and its Meaning
Why do I sculpt so many eyes into my work? It’s a question I get asked a lot—sometimes nervously. The answer has more to do with protection, presence, and ancient symbolism than you might expect...
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Horned God (WIP)
Out of the Forest
Scheduled for August 23rd, the exhibition, “Out of the Forest” will be held at Manor Mill Gallery in Monkton, MD. Some works in progress here.
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“The Interstellar Traveler.” Black stoneware with engobe. 2025
If This Work Was Found in a Thousand Years
When I made this piece, I started thinking differently about legacy. It’s not just about me lasting. It’s about us. I want humanity to survive this perilous moment we’re living through. I want us to make it to the other side of whatever this is….
Read MoreMore sigils: 25 May 2025
The Sigils are evolving a bit into something intriguing and new. I’m planning on offering a set to mark the eight seasons of the year’s Wheel. Litha, or Midsummer, is coming up on June 21st, representing the vibrant season of light, zenith, celebration, and radiance.
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This wider-mouthed one also had a calming “Whale’s eye”.
Yarn bowls
I’d never made a yarn bowl before so when a fan of my work asked me to make her some, I was intrigued with the challenge.
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One of the Sigil “sentinel” wall sculptures in progress, “Protection”.
"The Audacity of Imagination"
My own work is traveling a bit of a strange route of late. Since I’ve delved more into the meaning and making of sigils, I’m finding that they want to crop up everywhere in the art…
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Current work: 19 April 2025
Asimov’s I, Robot stories; the idea of positronic brains, the laws of robotics, etc., fascinated me. I loved the mix of complex ancient civilizations, philosophy, and science fiction. His writing made the potential exploration of worlds by future beings seem so vast and interesting.
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Magnets I made a few years ago that were actually sigils but I didn’t know that’s what was channelling…. They’re made of Sculpey!
Continuity of Self
How is it possible to feel a “continuity of self” when all the cells in my body— with the exception of the lens of my eye— have regenerated more than once? I’m certain that I’ll still feel continuity of self when I’m 75.
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A ceramic frame which will eventually have a drawing in the inner space.
More ideas for sigils...
What has become pretty clear to me is this: Artists who use their work or others’ work to train an AI to spit out images for them to paint are completely missing the real value of what they potentially could get from working with an AI assistant.
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Current work: 7 April 2025
The gallery, Manor Mill in Monkton, MD, has invited me to participate in their group invitational show, “Out of the Forest” this August.
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A few sigil tiles, 6” x 6”. Clockwise from top left: abundance, sanctuary, protection, and love. I’m still trying to figure out how to achieve the feeling of each intention….
Current new work: 25 March-- Sigil Tiles
Some time ago, my friend, Marian, asked me to make a sigil tile for her. What the heck was that? I thought. A sigil, or “seal” is a magical symbol of a desired outcome based on a word.
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