Elephant was pasted into high grass.



This Elephant named Toby was drawn long ago. He was a circus elephant all his life, since he was a pup. But last week, I cut him out with a pair of scissors...out of the piece of paper where he lived, and the circus and his comfortable zone.

Today I pasted Toby into the African savannah. I could see, in his eye, the look of fear and surprise at first, and then it turned to wonder, as he saw his first mountains, and felt the pads of his elephant foot touch moist grasses.

Toby is probably worried about making new friends. I am hoping one of those cleaner birds will land on his back soon and keep him company.

Wallpaper friend 1983



In 2009 I bought a roll of old wall paper from the 1960s or 70s. The back of it had a very nice rough texture, and I used it to practice water coloring on. The paper absorbs a lot of water and gives a muted and aged look to whatever I paint on it.

This red fellow,well, I don't know much about him really. I don't even know his name, though I suspect it is Jacob. He seems to communicate not with words, but with long, long moments of silence. I have taken to setting him down by my bed and keeping him with me all the time so that eventually I can learn to understand the meaning of these silences and what he is trying to tell me.

My friend Takeo says he looks like ET mixed with a frog. ET came to Earth in 1983. If he fell in love with a small tree frog, maybe while Elliot was at school, he could have had some hybrid tadpoles. Today, the hybrid would be 28 years old. I feel like he looks about 27 in this painting...but I haven't seen enough extra terrestrial frog hybrids to know exactly how to tell their age.

The painting below is called "He Lives in your Neighborhood". IT was sold at my first show at Billy Shire Fine Arts in 2009. This one is also on the same wallpaper.

Blue Kitty




I accidentally drew this blue kitty yesterday. I was trying to draw something else, maybe George Washington, or maybe a small piglet. I think this blue kitty must have been on this piece of paper already, so when I rubbed some paint on the paper he surfaced. I was quite pleased to meet him.

It Will all be over Soon




Fatalistic Chick
"It will all be over soon"

I am back to painting again for the first time in many moons. I spent most of last year making my picture book Everybody Dies- A Children's Book for Grown Ups. I finished it in Decmeber, but then in early January I met Jacob the herniated disc (L5) and Jacob makes it hard to paint because I can't sit down for long.

It's been two months since I met Jacob, and I am learning to live with him. He's not a good neighbor though. I started painting again a few days ago since I am getting ready for several art shows.

1. This Saturday I will have a piece in Torrance Museum to benefit the quake.
2. It is the anniversary of the Billy Shire Fine ARts Gallery where I had my first show in 2009. They are doing a show with a piece from all artists who have showed there...the work will be published in a book. So I need to finish a piece for that by March 31.
3. I am applying for a museum show in Hokkaido.
4. I have my first Solo Art show in Los Angeles coming up on June 10th in Chinatown.
5. I have a show at Cade Gallery in Phoenix Arizona on the First Friday in May.

So I have to make peace with Jacob and start painting. I made Fatalistic Chick Today.


This is a companion to the piece below which I did quite a while ago. Click here and scroll down and you can see a little bit about the original piece.



I would like to do one more "It will all be over soon" but I haven't though of it yet. I think the thought is coming soon. Yes