One-Off’s

Every now and then—largely because I either need to keep the boat afloat, or because someone asks me to—I head out in an unexpected direction.
I have done very few “in response” pieces—I rarely work quickly, and I, to date anyway, don’t get to work much purely as an exercise. In the time I have, I work in response to my life and the world around me (Thanksgiving 2012). So I have rarely produced work responding to calls—though I have really enjoyed fitting completed work into the visions of various group shows—with one exception. For the opportunity to go home to Montana, to interact with my favorite art chicks in Great Falls, and best of all, to work side by side with my father to mount an artwork, I would do most anything.
In June, 2011 I created an installation for the Great Falls Urban Art Project, sponsored by Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, and helmed by my former colleague, retired Great Falls High School art teacher and current Montana Congresswoman Jean Price, the exemplar of putting  your money where your mouth is—or in Jean’s case, your action where your he/art is.
  My Boots Hang There
Commissions can be tricky, as I’m sure any artist—or anyone who works on commission of any kind—can tell you. I am very clear that I don’t work on spec. No matter what is in the head of a client, it will filter differently through mine. So I make sure they understand that what they are purchasing is my interpretation of their idea. I am usually very firm about input. I invite it at the outset, but close that invitation once the work begins. Should the client speak up in progress, I’ll listen, but feel no obligation to follow. Sometimes what I hear has an impact. Sometimes it doesn’t.
And of course, the only thing that is absolute is that nothing is absolute. I recently painted a mural of a Chinese dragon for a friend, believing very much that I had heard precisely what she wanted and was executing it exactly…and at the end of Day One, once I had departed the scene, she came into the room, tore my stencil in half and added a head…and it was exactly what was required for the piece…and actually made it much more pleasurable to paint. Never say never!
  Kirkwood Dragon
More often than not, I’ve found that commissions allow me a truly unique, and ultimately rather magical interaction with someone that simply would never have been arrived at without a desire on their part and an ability to fulfill it on mine.
  Vaux Oak
Occasionally, commissions open a whole new body of work. And lead to whole new techniques. The story of how I came to do pet portraits is at the link, below.
  Things I Do For Love (Portraits of the Animal Variety)
To date, these are some of my one-timers.
Ai yi yi! I almost forgot–this is what the occasional look at your CV will do for you! Also did the CD cover art for an exquisite musician who has become a dear friend, Arwen Lawrence de Castellanos, of Cascada de Flores. Sadly, the group evolved in configuration, and the piece became inappropriate. But I still love it, and I loved making it, from Oaxaca, with their music as accompaniment. Pure pleasure.

  Cascada de Flores–Homenaje a Rodolfo Morales

A couple more one-timers from the last couple of years
Days of the Dead 2016

Klimt Deer Series


Memory Palace

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