Christmas in Connecticut in 2001

In 2001 I spent Christmas with my brother, Gary, at our old run down family house in Mansfield, Connecticut. It was the first Christmas I had been there in twelve years. The "tree" was not in fact a single tree but several small trees and large branches stuck in an old enameled-metal diaper pail, arranged as one might a giant floral arrangement to give the illusion of a Christmas Tree. The ornaments were all cut from scrap papers found around the house, coffee filters, newspapers, candy wrappers, what-have-you. The lovely "dog" settling herself beneath the tree was not in fact a true dog but an unusual cross between dog and coyote, sadly sterile and not long lived, but very good natured and well behaved.

The Earlier Re-Used Christmas Tree

This, then, is that Christmas Tree from 1996 referred to in an earlier post as the model for this year's one. It happened that I was extremely busy painting murals based on Greek vase paintings in a future pizza and salad bar joint in the old PG&E Building downtown. I was working for this crazed Iranian entrepreneur desperately in need of brain surgery. He kept expecting more and more work from me; promising more and more money (which never materialized.) I had no time to purchase a fresh tree for decorating, so on Christmas Morning (my only day off) I constructed this tree using dried flowers and herbs. The origami decorations were a present from my friend. I was fairly pleased with the results and left it on display in my storefront long past the last day of Christmas.

Enguerrand Quarton's Virgins

Though I'm certainly no believer, I do admire some old painters who apparently did believe in The Myth of The Virgin Who Gave Birth To A God. Here you see three very fine renderings of this Immaculate Creature and Her Entourage by a sadly neglected French Master of the Fifteenth Century, named Enguerrand Quarton.

Last Year's Christmas Tree

As a "follow-up" to the previous post I'm showing some photos I made for a slide show last year related to that Christmas Tree and its predominant decoration of Chocolate Santas. It's called Santa Claws and the Love Gift and can be viewed on various sites, including Youtube and Vimeo.

Re-Using Last Year's Christmas Tree

As I'm going to visit my mother in Florida for Christmas, I decided not to buy a fresh tree for my room this time. Instead I did what I once did when I had The Cheap Art Store on Divisadero. It was that Christmas thirteen years ago when I was working on those murals for that horrible financial district restaurant, Portico. I took most of the dried flowers I had been saving the last few years and filled in the dried out skeleton of last year's tree. Merry Christmas!

The Book Fair At PS1

My friend Gregg took these photos of me drawing specifically for presentation on this blog, so I figured I had better show them. The drawing I'm working on in the picture can be seen completed in the previous post.

Jungleboy Bound

This is a series of drawings I made over the last month while I was on the East Coast. It shows the the further fantastic adventures of the central character of one of my recent books. The book's text makes clear the critique of colonialism which may not be apparent here. In any case, the viewer is asked to view them in this light.