PAINTING PEZ

Today I worked on a 'portrait' of Pez, my neighbors most amazing warm-blooded, black horse. Glen Browning invited me to photograph Pez last month and in the course of that time I have been toying with what to do about Pez.  I created a silk screen image and placed that on various backgrounds, I transformed altered photos of Pez into laser prints, perhaps for later transfers, and I started a painting of Pez's fabulous head.  Today was productive in that the painting moved forward fulfilling the fleeting, yet strangely concrete notions I want to materialize in the work. Painting a horse that has little variation in tonality, (he is jet black) is one challenge.  Fortunately, it was a sunny day during my photo session, so there were some highlights, and shine, and bridle, and metal.   But beyond all of that,  I crave the vitality, war-like greatness of this animal.  He made it possible for Scythian nomads to course over the Eurasian steppes.  The Celts of middle Europe made Pez their means of dominating Gaul and then Britain.  His ancestors carried Crusaders!! He was a knights horse. Now his great mass and rich heritage are pulled into the dressage arena where horse and rider meld and restrain and float.

                                         PEZ, day one

                                         PEZ in studio

                                          PEZ, day two

St. Luke's Centennial Logo

      Our church, St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Woodland, California is going to celebrate 100 Years on the Same Corner on September, 29 2012. The celebration is for the church building itself as St. Luke's was established in Woodland in 1887.  Services were held at the Opera House (which pre-dated the present Opera House).  In 1912 the present church was built, and the old church was sold to the Second Baptist church.
     In commemoration of this event I designed a logo to be used as a magnet, a banner, and for literature.
The design was inspired by a 14th century medallion housed at the MET. St. Luke's attribute, the winged ox is seated in a bucolic setting against a cobalt blue sky on a grassy slope.  In my interpretation, St. Luke's building is being cradled in the ox's legs.  I remembered the many early renaissance portraits of church patrons holding model sized replicas of their churches or cathedrals and thought this would be a perfect use of that form.