I call this series “Standing Portraits”. All of the paintings are 84” X 60”, with the exception of The Oakland School, which is comprised of three panels totalling 65” X 180”. The paintings depict my Oakland circle of artists in 1990, with a few students from Maybeck High School, Berkeley, where I was teaching at the time. The entire series was exhibited in a solo show curated by Marian Parmenter at the Museum of Modern Art Artist’s Gallery in 1990.

Portrait of a Woman Acrylic on Canvas, 1999, 84” X 60” Available This is a portrait of Denise Webbly-Wright, wife of Anthony Wright. The mirror image occurred to me while I was repositioning the figure farther to the right in the picture pl

Portrait of a Screen Writer Acrylic on Canvas, 1988, 84” X 60” This painting is in the collection of Claudia Stanten. John McCormick sat behind me all the way through high school because his name came after mine in the alphabet. He was and

Quinceañera Acrylic on Canvas, 1990, 84” X 60” Available Sandra Pantoja was one of my favorite students at Maybeck High School in Berkeley. We both grew up in East Oakland. Separated by just a few miles, East Oakland and Berkeley are worlds

The Covert War Acrylic on Canvas, 1989, 84” X 60” Available I painted this self portrait during the covert war in Central America. I had spent a lot of time with a backpack hiking around the cornfields in the highlands of Guatemala, and I g

I Danced with Chocolate Acrylic on Canvas, 1990, 84” X 60” Available For many years I was crazy about salsa dancing, and once I went to see Chocolate Armenteros, the famous trumpet player. Chocolate asked me to dance, so i did, and he took

Troubled Sleep Acrylic on Canvas, 1990, 84” X 60” Available This is a portrait of a Maybeck High School student named Ben Warwas. He was a wonderful artist who made his own clothes. He wore this fake fir outfit every day for a whole semeste

The Judgement of Paris Acrylic on Canvas, 1994, 84” X 60” Available This is a portrait of a young man who had three girlfriends. Rather than being judged by Paris, the three graces are judging him. (The three graces are taken from other pa

The Oakland School Acrylic on Canvas, 1990, 84” X 60” Available This is a group of Oakland artist friends, all of whom made a career of art in one way or another. It is a riff on the Last Supper, but note that there is no food. Left to Righ

Born to Drum

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