Flaming Hibiscus

I saw this beautiful yellow hibiscus while walking in the neighborhood. It seemed to be just crackling and sizzling with energy, a physical manifestation of the sunshine we get here each day.

Colonial-era “Copper”

While enduring a stressful period in one of my other endeavors, it seemed a good time to work on what I hoped would be a peaceful landscape, a pretty picture. This was the result. The object in the foreground is a colonial-era artifact known as a “copper”. These large iron containers were used to boil down the cane juice in the production of sugar…

A Ripe Tomato from the Caribbean

This started out as a ripe tomato from the local organic farm. So sweet and delicious, it’s just a distant relative to what can be bought in the store. It’s one of those tomatoes that, even when perfectly ripe, is still a mix of brick-red and green. It had delicate rings of tan scar tissue — maybe tomato stretch marks? — and a cleavage…

The beautiful eggplant

These tasted as good as they look. No other comment necessary.

Ironman

You see, there was this “found object” — an old machine part of some sort laying in an abandoned building that inspired the image in the previous post, and this one, and a few others. So in a way, I’m recycling, without even using anything up. Even in old trash left behind to rust into the ground, there may be some animus, like the…

Buck Island View 2

Thanks to Jane Hunt for giving me the blogger’s lemonade award! Jane paints contemplative heavily-textured acrylic landscapes. Check out her blog! Since I ‘ve just passed on a tag of another award, I will leave this one on countertop for a few days before sending it on to some worthy bloggers helpful to other artists. Instead, for today, I’ll share a new view of…

Locked Out/In

The ambiguity of a locked door… Which side is out and which in? Am I locked out to protect what is in, or locked into my world. Or is what is on the other side locked out to protect and keep safe what is on this side? There must be something important behind that door, but I’m not sure I want to let it…

Carambola Ice

Here is a final image from the carambola still life series. It feels like ice to me. It is interesting how such different interpretations can emerge from a series of quite similar photographs of the same subject. Work on the final images was started on different days and the result was determined in part by the strengths of each individual photograph — but also…

Abstracts and Imaginary Landscapes

There is always a distinct tension for me between accessible realism, and the more abstract. By moving too far toward the abstract, there is a danger that the connection points for viewers get lost. The images in this post are part of a series of abstractions inspired by the brilliant color fields of Sandy Point and illustrate this tension. I have read that there…

An Old Danish Fort

Fort Christiansvaern in Christiansted, St. Croix, is a relic of the long Caribbean history of plantations, sugar and slavery. One version of a part of that history is told in Buddhoe by Patricia Gill. With its many planes, curves and layers, the fort is a photogenic landmark that lends itself to multiple interpretations. This is one of several new images that I am adding…

Mystery at the Water’s Edge

There is a story about zen master Shunryu Suzuki-roshi who was asked to summarize Buddhism in a single sentence. His answer was, “everything changes.” Where the sea brushes the shore is a place of constant change, and sometimes mystery – almost a metaphor for life. This image was inspired by a spot along Davis Bay on St. Croix where the water had carved the…