catharcism

Psychoanalysis

Mixed media on stretched canvas 59" x 84" x 2". This piece emerged during the creation of a 3-part educational documentary series titled "The History of Psychology," particularly the second video on Freud, Jung and Psychoanalysis. In retrospect, the images seem a visual embodiment of what might exist in the unconscious mind. $4500.

Exodus

Mixed media on stretched canvas 50" x 78" x 2". I was working on a series of documentaries about major unifying forces in human history - religion, politics and law - and did several paintings during these sessions including this one and Hammurabi. SOLD

Seagulls

Mixed media on stretched canvas 60" x 115" x 3". I was working on a documentary featuring Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee we took to Russia and filmed live sequences in and around the Moscow Art Theatre, home of Anton Chekhov's revolutionary play "The Seagull." $4750

Barricade

Mixed media on stretched canvas 48" x 72" x 3". This painting was inspired by the events of 2020 when barricades were put up in the streets of several northwestern cities to help block the spread of obnoxious miscreants. $2850

Hammurabi (detail)

iMixed media on stretched canvas 66" x 38" x 2". In my documentary "Religion, Politics and Law," these unifying forces of society came together in 1700 BC under the rule of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who carved his laws in a stone obelisk set in the center of the city ("carved in stone") so all the visiting tribes would know the law. The four diagonal slashes were added by my wife following a prolonged argument. I felt they added something to the painting and have left them alone. $2500

Extravaganza

Mixed media on stretched canvas 48" x 144" x 3". Suffering from a fragmented disc in my lower back, I hobbled around the canvas on the ground for several days. This piece was purchased by a collector and hangs in a luxurious home in Scottsdale, Arizona. SOLD

Thoroughbred

Acrylic on stretched canvas 48" x 120" x 3". After moving to Kentucky and becoming immersed in the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry, this piece captures the dynamic essence of thundering hooves at the finish line. $4500.

Joyous Liberation of a Somber Personality

Mixed media on stretched canvas 48" x 60" x 2". This piece was created in response to being around a person involved in continuous self-produced depression. He was depressing himself. In the attempt to free him of his infirmity, his malady was absorbed, necessitating expurgation through Cartharcism. $3000.

Nexus

Mixed acrylic media on stretched canvas 36" x 48" x 2". Weather can affect emotions and heavy weather can affect emotions dramatically. This piece was created after a tumultuous thunderstorm followed by a brilliant sunset. SOLD

Harmony

Mixed acrylic media on stretched canvas 48" x 96" x 2". One of the few pieces jointly created with Valerie during a time of peace and collaboration. $3000.

Nazarre

Framed acrylic on wood panel 10" x 10" x 1/4" (image size). If you have ever seen surfers ride the perilous 90-foot waves at Nazarre, Portugal, you too will be inspired to transform that feeling into a color-field of abstraction. SOLD

Exegesis #21

Gauche, India ink and oil crayon on heavy 100% cotton rag paper, 20" x 24". I did a series of these by suspending thought and working quickly, let inner psychic energy guide my hand. Nothing was covered up or painted over. In shadowbox frame $650.

Ablution

Framed acrylic on wood panel 11" x 9 1/2" x 1/4" (image size). Ablution is a spiritual cleansing, what happens most often when engaged in Catharcism painting. SOLD

Spermatogenesis

Black and white enamel on primed stretched canvas 60" x 60" x 2". Sometimes the titled for a painting pops into your head when you are creating it. This one done on the floor a la Jack the Dripper. SOLD

Adventures in Protoplasm

Acrylic on stretched canvas 48" x 48" x 2". This painting emerged while working with medical doctors on a series of surgical videos and a documentary titled "Endocrine System: The Body's Regulator." Some of this work involved understanding the human body's processes at a molecular level. $950.

Peacocks

Epoxy primed stainless steel with 12 layers of enamel 24" x 18" x 3". I prepared this ground in advance and it sat in my studio for months before the urge came to apply a circular grinder. As the abrasive wheel bit through the layers and interesting motif developed suggesting the bird's plummage. $1250.

Quetzalcoatl

Acrylic on stretched canvas 48" x 36" x 2". Traveling through Mexico while working on a documentary titled "Cross Cultural Communication," we studied the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Quetzalcoatl was the feathered serpent god of the Aztecs believed to have made essential contributions to mankind. SOLD

Why Must We Argue?

Mixed media on stretched canvas 48" x 60" x 2". Not every day is full of sunshine and laughter. Human beings are complex creatures and don't always get along. Lots of art derives from the darker emotions positively channeled. Ever hear a country song? $2400.

Starry Night

Acrylic on stretched canvas 48" x 36" x 2". I was reading Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo and this one came out. He wrote, "When that voice inside me says 'Vincent you are not a painter,' I paint and that voice is silenced." SOLD

Barrier Reef

Acrylic on stretched canvas 64" x 48" x 2". I spent a great deal of my youth skin diving and spearfishing in the Florida Keys and on the barrier reef off Andros Island in the Bahamas. This painting developed out of a love for the reefs, the fish and the sea. $4500.

Veracity

Acrylic on stretched canvas 48" x 60" x 2". Verisimilitude, what most people think is the truth, is actually the appearance of truth. Veracity is truth itself. As the Zen master says in the koan, "Do not mistake the finger pointing to the moon for the moon." SOLD

Pamplona

Acrylic on stretched canvas 16" x 24" x 2". Running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, during the Festival of St. Fermin is staged every year from July 6 to 14th. The event was made internationally famous in Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises. SOLD

Dogma

Enamel and acrylic ground down into a base of epoxy primed stainless steel 36" x 36" x 3". The dictionary defines dogma as "set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true." How many times throughout history have such principles proved false, as in the case of the Spanish Inquisition? This painting embodies the time honored rebellion against authoritarian repression. SOLD

Magnetisym

Acrylic on stretched canvas 36" x 48" x 2". Described by Plato and thought have exited in the Atlantic Ocean within the Bermuda Triangle, this sunken city of myth was said to have been powered by five giant crystals capable of transforming the sun's energy. I was told by a psychic in a seance at The Academy of Atlantis in L. A. my name was once Grendonis, keeper of the crystal. $1500.

Agony and Ecstasy (diptych)

Acrylic on two stretched canvas panels panels 60" x 24" x 2". Ecstasy emerged first from my psyche, but when the painting was finished the urge to continue was unabated. I stretched a companion panel and the balancing antithesis, Agony, emerged, a contrasting image. I may have been watching Carlton Heston in a movie of the same name, embattled in painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. SOLD

Tweedledee

Acrylic on stretched canvas 24" x 36" x 2". As I am also a writer, literature is often a source of inspiration as in the case of these two paintings from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. The inference of Tweedledum and Tweedledee today extends to any two persons or things that differ only slightly from each other. SOLD

Tweedledum

Contusion

Acrylic on stretched canvas 30" x 40" x 20". In the study of psychology you encounter the phenomenon of organic brain injury, often caused by physical head trauma. This can be a life-altering event which separates a person from himself, as in the diagnosis of schizophrenia, meaning literally "broken soul." SOLD

Moxey Town

Acrylic over stretched canvas 61" x 42" x 2" (frame size). In the style of Hans Hofmann, this piece evolved from visceral memories of the colorful people and experiences in Moxey Town on Andros Island in the Bahamas. SOLD

South Beach

Acrylic on stretched canvas 30" x 40" x 1". The magical stretch of sun, surf and energy from Government Cut to Collins Avenue on Miami's South Beach resonates with passion and energy as indicated by this thermal aerial view. SOLD

Interloper

Acrylic and Styrofoam pellets on stretched canvas 24" x 48" x 2". Sometimes when painting you have no idea where you are going. Then, at a certain point, a word pops in your mind from the subconscious, one of the perils of reading the dictionary. An interloper is a person who becomes involved in a place or situation when they are not wanted or do not belong. $1500.

A Study in Blue

Acrylic over stretched canvas 18" x 24" x 2". I remember painting over this canvas many times and it never seemed to work. Then, in a few strokes of blue applied with my hands, it all made sense. SOLD

The Wizard

Acrylic, oil enamel,miscellaneous aggregate over plywood and frame 36" x 72" x 3". I painted this, then framed it and it didn't look finished, so I continued on and painted the frame. My dentist came to dinner one night and said he saw the face of a wizard in the painting. Abstract paintings can create a wonderful collaboration between the artist and the viewer. SOLD

Wild at Heart

Acrylic on stretched canvas 48" x 24" x 2". I was in a jubilant mood when working on this piece and it shows. SOLD

Taipei

Acrylic over stretched linen 40" x 30" x 2". It took quote a while to make it through the great novel by James Clavell, set in Hong Kong. The vivid visceral impression created by his words was channeled into the painting. SOLD

Sanctuary

Acrylic on stretched canvas 61" x 27" x 1" (framed). This piece was a struggle for many hours as I tried to work out some inner demons. Finally, I let everything go and experienced a deep sense of inner peace. With supernatural clarity, I picked up a wide bush and completed the painting in several minutes, obfuscating the cacophony of underling colors with pure black and white. $2500.

Sublimity

Acrylic on stretched canvas 60" x 60" x 3". A collector commissioned this piece with the caveat "I want it big and square with bright colors." I absorbed the atmosphere fro m his southwest location and the painting emerged with a Native American feel with the hint of turquoise. SOLD

Inquisitiveness

Acrylic on stretched canvas 36" x 60" x 2". Sometimes your mind comes loose from its tether and you wallow in inquisitiveness until things click in and your rediscover yourself on new ground. Like when Elaine is lost in the rain and meets Peterman for the first time: "I don't know where I'm going." He answers, "that's the best way to get somemwhere you've never been." $1250.

Frenzy

Acrylic on stretched canvas 66" x 44" x 2". My trapped psychic energy exploded onto this canvas which became heavy with paint. My collector had a replica stained glass window made for his front door as a prelude, when opened reveal this painting hanging over his mantel in the living room. SOLD

Red Roses

Acrylic on stretched canvas 24" x 36" x 1". A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, said the Bard. $1000.

Kilauea

Acrylic on stretched canvas 24" x 18" 2". The continual oozing eruption and lava flow of the Hawaiian volcano is a source of fascination, especially as the molten rock flows into the sea and the ensuing steam. SOLD

Kobe

Acrylic on stretched canvas 22" x 14" x 2". I was watching the tragedy of the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, Japan, January 1995, and felt deep compassion for the toll of human life and property lost. Kobe once won a prize in an art show and hung in the Texas State Capitol. A top neurosurgeon later accepted this painting as payment for surgery required to repair a fragmented disc in my back. SOLD