Victor and the Breezespreader painting

My largest mixed media painting to date depicts Victor sailing through the sky clutching a bouquet of flower-y type blossoms and a gift while waving a bright red handkerchief (and he appears to have 4 arms and 4 legs?). Behind him, mech-tech birds dive bomb in their shiny copper capsules while a sneaky frog soars upwards with a propeller strapped to his back. What must the city dwellers think?

Ingredients: Fan blades, steamer basket, cassette deck innards, rope, drawer slides, motor casings, cogs, washers, wire, canvas strips, acrylic paint, indian ink, Irish blood, American sweat, German tears and Chinese food.

Milagra painting

This beautiful woman is near and dear to my heart. It’s my first mixed media painting using unique objects, in this case, figure skates. Milagra carves a path on the frozen river in the middle of the desert. A dead tree and a freshly bitten apple complete the scene.

10 points for whatever that pose is. Is she wearing any clothes?

Ingredients: Figure skates, wire, acrylic paint, indian ink, cold pizza, scuttling bugs and a Somerville studio with a vibrating floor.

Chelsea’s Royal painting

A Royal typewriter from the early 1900’s formed the basis for this behemoth. Disassembling that dinosaur and cleaning the grubby parts was an exercise in patience. With the addition of some clockwork brass, the bulbous headed author was able to continue writing amongst his treasured tomes.

Ingredients: Royal typewriter (broken), brass clock mechanism, old wood from packing palette, cargo pant leg, wire, acrylic paint, indian ink, hope, foresight, hindsight, bright light and stage fright.

The Amazing Straitjacket Escape painting

Sometimes I know what I want to paint before I create the multi-layered surface for the painting to inhabit. Sometimes I don’t. With this early piece I didn’t know what I was prepping the board for until a friend stopped by and commented on how “bound” the surface appeared to be with so many strips of canvas and wire rapped around it. Naturally that led me to a straitjacket which brought me to an escape artist which opened up a world of circus typography.

Ingredients: Particle board, wire, canvas strips, acrylic paint, bic medium pen, helpful suggestions and too many 100° days in the attic.

Break painting

An odd collection of characters gather on a lawn where weird things happen. A man and woman sit on a picnic bench and eat some lunch while a frazzled guy runs through the scene while he’s being blasted by someone on the other end of the phone, demanding “Who..” (that’s what the wire coming out of the phone spells, tough to see in pictures).

Ingredients: Electric typewriter, inkjet printer trays, cassette deck innards, acrylic paint, indian ink, odd looks, baby food and dog slobber.