human headpiece, watercolor on yupo, 9"x12", 2014 Continuing from the previous blog post, regarding the exploration of the beauty of the grotesque... curiosity towards the understanding of the human experience has been with me as far back as I can remember. Though I've spent a good number of years taking this existence for granted, my greatest discontent seems to lay in finding continued inspiration in learning of the complexities of who we are. This includes the study of human psychology, metaphysics, philosophy, and so on. If you follow my artistic expressions at all, you can see these explorations and realizations thru out. Another aspect towards the exploration of who we all are is the study of anatomy. That physical expression of all of us united. We may come to have different ideas of who we are, what reality is and so on, but we all share the same physiology. Muscles, bones, organs, etc. A few years ago, I had the fortune to teach artist's anatomy at art college, and this gave me the opportunity, the inspiration to explore it further. I would come to find a beauty in the colors, shapes, functions, forms of human anatomy, and so naturally would this extend into art pieces created. I've attended the traveling cadaver show, "Body Worlds" on two occasions and left moved. It really brings that objective mirror of reality of ourselves. Its like being in a museum of death that, at least to myself, doesn't feel morbid at all. In San Francisco, I've also had the experience of visiting a cadaver lab at least a half dozen times so as to draw from ecorched corpses, like the artists of past such as Leonardo DaVinci did in their acquisition of anatomical knowledge. The most recent time I did this, around 18 months ago, I held a human brain in my hands. When I left the lab that day, I can recall being cut off by a car on the street as I walked almost immediately, and how I was transparent to any reaction of aggression. I was really in tune with the bigger picture of this existence so immediately after spending intimate time with the dead, and was unaffected by the small things. Memento Mori. There are so many miracles accessible all around us, and the personal existence of ourselves is a powerful one. Though alot of my research tends to be intangible, the anatomy of ourselves is a visual one that can only aid in deeper appreciation thru awareness, of the beautiful mystery of nature. At its nature, it is just another example how such a complexity of systems work so perfectly together thru design that is beyond imagination, comprehension. I hope these paintings can pay even the most minimal heed towards this aspect of our nature.

         This painting, "human being", will be on exhibition alongside other talents at Modern Eden Gallery San Francisco, opening March 8th. For more information please visit  moderneden.com. Thank you for visiting.