This site uses a commercial template: However, online sales buttons are disabled; nothing on this site is currently available for sale online.
So, for the near future, this site will contain NO COOKIES.
The purpose of this site for now, is as an online portfolio, an art blog, and a way to connect with the art community.
Enjoy browsing around, and in the future, I hope to post more of my artwork here, along with short stories, some material from my old comics, videos, and other material.
Disclaimer: This site does (and will include more) nude study drawings, and a picture of the sculpture of David when I was in Florence Italy, but no nude photographs (a bulk of my artwork is comprised of landscapes and still-life images, anyway).
ALSO: A small number of people think that painting/drawing/photography etc. i.e. making art is not a real job - and do not appreciate the hours put into making a painting or a drawing; that is why you will find many of the images here marred with a big watermark. This is to prevent seeing my images show up on someone else’s page as some of their own work, or (as has been documented before in the news). Advertisers, bloggers, and other entities who are too lazy to pay for images will steal parts of images from other people’s social media sites to use in background shots, etc. This is still considered stealing if consent from the artist is not given. Many artists (including myself) probably give away more than half of all their art. And from time to time I will volunteer my time to helping on an art project collaboratively with other artists for no money- the reward is to keep practicing, continual self-improvement, and to gain more experience. If you have the means, support your local artists; you are not only paying for hours of work, but also the creative brainstorming that goes into making an image in the first place.
You can simply keep scrolling down, these are just quicker shortcuts (in order listed down this page) to the bottom of this home page. Additional links to other pages (A CLOSER LOOK, BLOG/EVENTS, and BIO) are at the top of page. And you can always use the HOME icon to return to this page at the top.
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A closer look at some select paintings and drawings, along with other details such as size, medium, location, and any backstory to the image.
A quick bio on myself, some of my favorite quotes, along with a mission statement about the importance of the visual arts.
![Various Holidays, especially Taiwanese Holidays + any notable events happening in and around Kaohsiung. This link will take you to a more detailed listing of that date. The calendar button below [Events Calendar (bottom of page) 月曆] , will show a monthly calendar format.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4b2d0fcb550c3027e31a12/1630925757539-03LF1J0MX9OAZRVP3W8D/Button+Icon+-+CALENDAR+Blog+Events+Light+Blue+20%25TEXT.png)
Various Holidays, especially Taiwanese Holidays + any notable events happening in and around Kaohsiung. This link will take you to a more detailed listing of that date. The calendar button below [Events Calendar (bottom of page) 月曆] , will show a monthly calendar format.
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Paintings on Canvas
在畫布上作畫
You’ve probably noticed these gaudy signatures on many of my photos and other art- These are watermarks digitally put on the images. They are not on the originals. They are simply put there to protect my art from digital theft, a copyright measure. If I arrange to send you one of these images, the watermark will be removed.
“Rice Dumplings”
(2008) Acrylic on Canvas
“Coffee Buddha”
(2008) Acrylic on Canvas
“Experience is a Hidden Place”
(1996) Acrylic house paint on wall behind the UF bookstore on University AVE. Now demolished. Done for a college project, other sections of the walls were painted by my classmates.
“Pin-Up: Barbie-Cue”
(2010) Acrylic on Canvas
2 of 3 Old Pin-Up series
“Pin-Up: Dirty Maid”
(2010) Acrylic on Canvas
1 of 3 Pin-Up series
“Pin-Up: Hula Girl”
(2010) Acrylic on Canvas
3 of 3 Pin-Up Series
“Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, Florida”
(2011) Acrylic on Canvas
“Lonely Boat on a Lonely Planet”
(2015) Acrylic on Canvas
“Artist Village, Taiwan”
(2020) Acrylic on Canvas
Based on a photo taken by a friend who is a photographer of little corners, and places in the countryside around Taiwan. Check out his website at formosajmac.com
“Portrait of My Father,
Tuning His Guitar”
(2010) Acrylic on Canvas I painted this on the eve of traveling back to the States to see my family, and presented this to my father as a gift, where he commented, “I have more hair than this.” (he did). It was later used in his eulogy that I could not attend because of my own brush with death a few weeks earlier in October of 2019 right before his own passing. The painting hung over the chair that is shown here in the picture. It’s “The Chair” I have my own “Chair” in my apartment now. The Ghetto Apartments had such personality, like the people who lived there.
It has since been bought out and demolished, but the painting remains. I never meant it as a ‘living tombstone’ of my father, but that seems to be what it has become. I found the image, and was inspired, and did this painting in an incredible few hours (I rarely do a painting in one sitting, especially of people).
When presented with this painting, he was also very observant: He said, “That’s not the proper way you play the guitar.” He was right. I did the painting not from a picture of him between playing songs. The image was from a test sheet (that used to come from the photo mat with the photos that turned out the photos that they deemed worth developing into photos, but also gave you the ‘rejects’ that most people accepted). It was a blurred small image that captured his spirit- In the act of tuning his guitar to play the next tune he had already prepared in his head. It was used as his portrait during his funeral, that I was not able to attend, because I was hit by drunk driver a few weeks before his passing- and was still convalescing in an old-folks home from multiple fractures to both of my knees and pelvis.
My dad picked out this gaudy frame, and had it mounted over the very chair I painted in the portrait from, that he sat in daily down in the “Gainesville Student Ghetto” where he had an apartment for years near his work when he didn’t want to drive home, or could also accommodate friends during UF games across the street from the UF campus; literally across the street from Florida (football) Field.
“Side Street in Boracay, Philippines”
(2009) Acrylic on Canvas
“Bling Cow”
(2023) Acrylic on Canvas
Given to my niece as a birthday present while in Florida on the same day I painted it.
“Purple Lotus”
(2009) Acrylic on Canvas
“Red Lotus”
(2009) Acrylic on Canvas
“Back Road of Dali Old City, Yunnan Province, China”
(2006) Acrylic on Canvas
“UF Painting Studio
(Composition in Red)”
(1994) Acrylic on matting board (art cardboard)
These two paintings : “UF Painting Studio..” Were done in most likely around 1994 when I was enrolled in a painting class with Prof. Jerry Cutler; probably one of the most informative painting instructors I have ever had- especially for application of the paint, color theory, experimenting with different paint mediums (e.g. oils), and a better appreciation for more abstraction in an image.
This assignment was to teach us about point to point painting- to put elements into the composition that are related, but not exactly the same, that function to keep the observer’s eye moving over the whole painting. I kept them monochromatic, because I felt color was an even more complex addition to the lesson he was teaching. The brush strokes are emphasized, so many of the elements in the painting have breaks or spaces in them to also allow for more negative space to work. If you look closely, you might be able to make out a paint bucket, some bottles, and other elements our Studio. The two things I remember about painting there were that the studios were very cold on February mornings around 8am., and the fact that Prof. Cutler was a very strict teacher, especially when it came to punctuality, and nailing the assignments; there were more than a few times in the studios (we were given keys or codes to the studios to work at almost any time) pulling all-nighters that I had to do before a big assignment was due… those were some of the few times I was early to class (because I never left).
“Pineapple, Watermelon, and Nectarines”
(2009) Acrylic on Canvas
“Sunflowers”
(2012) Acrylic on Canvas
“White Lilies”
(2012) Acrylic on Canvas
“Purple Orchids”
(2012) Acrylic on Canvas
“Pink Lotus”
(2009) Acrylic on Canvas
“Century Tower at the University of Florida”
(2011) Acrylic on Canvas
“The Gainesville Clock Tower”
(2023) Acrylic on Canvas
“Banyan Trees, Liyu Mountain Park, Taitung, Taiwan”
(2000) Acrylic on Canvas
“Self Portrait for College Assignment”
(1996 about) Acrylic on Canvas
“Morning in Puli Township, Nantou County, Taiwan”
(2002) Acrylic on Canvas
“Alleyway in Lu-Gang Township, Taiwan”
(2010) Acrylic on Canvas
“Hội An Floods”
(2020) Acrylic on Canvas
Unfortunately, I painted this from a photo in a window of a book cover who was a photographer of Hoi An. I did this while I recovering from an injury that year - It is my painting, but not my composition, nor have any way to ask permission to use the photo (from a photo I took in a display window of the book cover, while on one of few trips to Hoi-An, Vietnam), even though it is reproduced (absolutely no tracing); I was inspired by the image. I asked my partner to bring my ‘field kit’ for painting outdoors along with one of my blank canvases I keep handy. This painting was useful art therapy for my recovery. This is my painting, but do not want to use it for monetary purposes.
“三跳飛魚 Three Flying Fish”
(2010) Acrylic on Canvas
“Kim Bồng Carpentry Village Launching Boat, Hội An, Vietnam”
(undated) Acrylic on Canvas
“Lighthouse, Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan”
(2009) Acrylic on Canvas
“UF Painting Studio
(Composition in Blue)”
(1994) Acrylic paint on wood
“Guava, Red Onions, and Eggs”
(2008) Acrylic on Canvas
“大理古城-大街
Dali, Old City - Main Street”
(2006) Acrylic paint on canvas
“Yellow Roses”
(2012) Acrylic on Canvas
“African Daisies”
(2012) Acrylic on Canvas
“Study of Model’s back”
(1997) Acrylic on Canvas (live nude study)
Backs are very hard to draw; (not to offend anyone) but when drawing a nude from the front, you have reference points- shoulder blades, nipples, armpits, navel, hips, abdomen. You can construct a fairly good human reproduction if you know enough about bone structure (which I was taught in college- but mainly with the skull to get facial features correct). It wasn’t until I did an illustration for my friend’s yoga book, that I studied musculature. That was the first time I got a better idea of how muscles lay over the bones. With this particular study, I just got lucky; I do see anatomical problems with how the shoulders connect for the torso, but it works.
To paraphrase a comedian I once heard: “Women were sculpted by the Gods of Olympia and fashioned after the image of the Goddess Aphrodite herself, whilst men were apparently quickly welded together in a hidden stolen car crop shop from various spare parts and bits of rubbish.”
But I think one of the reasons this particular painting works, is because. I had already had an excellent painting instructor at U.F., Jerry Cutler (who taught me a lot about letting the medium of the paints show through), I had been a decent art history training on how certain modern artists paint (Monet avoided using blacks for shadows, and would opt for blues or other prismatic colors), along with being exposed to the paintings of such artists as Francis Bacon, but things like the early works of Henri Matisse (during his Fauvist period), and Picasso (during his blue period). Any time I have a chance I try to do life study; the subject does not have to be completely nude, but it’s important to study the nude figure (one trap artists get into is drawing the clothes, and not how the clothes drape over the body). The live study organizers are also pretty diplomatic; one week you might be drawing a beautiful female nude, the next a male nude, the next an elderly person- We often got an elderly man, who in his free time (for a bit of cash paid by the university) to come in during one of my drawing classes. He was actually an interesting figure to draw (I’ve drawn all types of bodies at this point). He met the minimum requirements and then some- he was always on time (even on cold winter mornings at 7am.), was able to hold a perfectly still pose for over 20 minutes, was professional, and had an intuition (as most experienced nude models who stand in front of artists) would know how to hold an interesting or challenging pose, and was always aware of the light.
The best models we got were dancers- they were athletic, and hyper-aware of how their bodies looked in any certain position.
What one might find “cool” would be to do a gorgeous model, or a body-builder, but while novel, would not give a person a good idea of average proportions, size, height, and … basically a realistic idea of the average body. I don’t think one would learn much from drawing a celebrity like Arnold Schwarzenegger… unless one was looking to draw what people look like in comic books. The famous photographer, Eadweard Muybridge who inspired Thomas Edison to create the first ‘moving pictures’, would go to insane asylums, and seek about people with amputations and other physical deformities to see how the human shape might be ‘transformed’… he also photographed strong men and models as well, and got in a bit of trouble for what he did at his time, in a very conservative era of the United States (late 1800’s to early 1900’s).
Why are nude studies necessary? The human body, with it’s musculature (that changes any time it moves), is one of the most challenging subjects for an artist to draw. It’s practically a required subject for any serious artist.
“Tsumago Village, Gifu Prefecture in the Kiso Valley, Japan”
(2007) Acrylic on Canvas
“Pier 22, Kaohsiung Harbor”
(2020) Acrylic on Canvas
“Aluminum Building, Da-She 大社區 District, Taiwan”
(2021) Acrylic on Canvas
Based on a photo taken by a friend who is a photographer of little corners, and places in the countryside around Taiwan. Check out his website at formosajmac.com
Watercolors
水彩繪畫
Explanation: “Done On Site”
You might notice some works have the phrase “Done on Site”: I have organized this website by medium. And aside from other mediums, watercolors seem to need special mention when, and where they were done. Watercolors are probably the most complicated and nuanced forms of painting; they must be done fairly quickly; it becomes much more complicated to match up the layers of color, when half done in one place and half done later at home, the colors might not match up, alternatively, when done ‘in the field’ one also has to take into account the position of the sun when one gets to a certain point in the painting; one famous watercolorist, Georgia O’Keeffe when doing some of her ‘on site’ paintings in the desert, would take a break under her car when the desert sun became too intense. Also, the position of random people in the composition are going to be coming and going about their business (you simply have to make a mental note, and decide to put that into your picture at a given moment). Watercolors are one of the most temporal (affected by time in the short-term) mediums out there.
This means when earlier taken by a photograph, or captured by a quick sketch to get down the initial image, with the intention of doing it into a watercolor later on (it’s usually something I wish I could freeze time set up an easel and paint). Is out of a desire of trying to capture a great image from life (it would be handy if I had a photographic memory, but the idea of doing a painting is to transform the image itself- it is being recorded and re-presented to others… this is a good point on why to defend photographers… but when changing the image into another medium, one is also transforming the image into another image, perspective, or idea). If I photograph an image, it’s usually on the go (stopping my bike on the side of the road in heavy traffic, a shot off of my phone cycling in the morning- if the photo were better than the watercolor, I’d probably show both. The portrait I did of my late father was actually done off of a small one inch test strip that seemed to catch his spirit; there wasn’t even a developed decent sized photo to go off of- and in the end I did the painting in an incredible couple of hours on New Year’s Eve right before I was to fly back to States to see my dad (It sounds cliche, but I was inspired).
Some works, I might want to go home and experiment with a different palette of colors (changing the composition, etc.). If a work is traced from a photo I did, I’ll tell you. One clue that it was painted on site, is the setting- sitting on a beach is an ideal spot to do a quick watercolor. All I can say, in conclusion is- The Pros: A pack of watercolors is very portable, and easy to do anywhere, the Cons: watercolors are a real pain to get the image down well… one really has to surrender to the medium. It’s very easy to overdo a watercolor (e.g. turn the whole image to mud). And finally, one has to have the mindset to say, “Stop- for better or worse, it’s finished! Let it dry, pack things up and move on.”
You’ve probably noticed these gaudy signatures on many of my photos and other art- These are watermarks digitally put on the images. They are not on the originals. They are simply put there to protect my art from digital theft, a copyright measure. If I arrange to send you one of these images, the watermark will be removed.
“Little Bay Beach Kenting, Hengchun Township, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor -Done on site
“Looking Out Window across Kenting Road, Hengchun Township, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor done on site
“Doorway on Jie-Min Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Palms on Beach - Boracay, Philippines” (2006) Watercolor -Done on site
“Banana Bay Fishing Port, Kenting, Hengchun Township, Taiwan”
(2017) Watercolor overlaid with Pen & Ink done in two sittings on site
“We Must Get Home Again - James Whitcomb Riley”
(2017) Watercolor overlaid with Pen & Ink
“White Flowers in Black Pot”
(1993) Watercolor done in class (pretty much one sitting)
“Fishmonger- Fish Heads on Jie-Min Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Fishmonger- Red Snapper on Jie-Min Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Fishmonger- Bowl of Fish, on Jie-Min Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Fishmonger- Fish Tied Up on Jie-Min Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Roses in Bottle”
(1993) Watercolor done on site in one sitting
“Hemingway’s Old Man & the Sea - The Fisherman, Santiago”
(2017) Watercolor overlaid with Pen & Ink
“Love River Bicycle Path Along ZiYou Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Small Mandarin Tree”
(2015) Watercolor
“Flowerpots Near Jie-Min Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2015) Watercolor
“Coffee Painting/Painting Coffee”
(2005) Watercolor -Done on site (Soko did a mirror drawing of her coffee cup in the same sitting- that is her hand painting in the upper right hand corner).
“Hemingway’s Old Man & the Sea - The Great Fish”
(2017) Watercolor overlaid with Pen & Ink
“Begonias in Dannon Cup”
(1993) Watercolor done in class
“Notre-Dame Cathedral, Before the Fire”
(2019) Watercolor overlaid with Pen & Ink
“Abstract Shapes based on Seashells”
(1993) Watercolor
“Fishing Boat - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Watercolor done on site
“Single Cloud Sunset - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Watercolor done on site
“林園市公墓 Ling-Yuan Cemetery”
(1998) Watercolor done on site
“Girl Reading Under Palm - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Watercolor done on site
“Taiwan Work Pickup Truck”
(2015) Watercolor
“Hotel Path, Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Watercolor -Done on site
“麗江古城 China: Lijiang side street”
(2002) Watercolor Pencils -Done on site
“Chair on Beach, Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Watercolor - Done on site
“Neighbor’s House in Gainesville”
(1996) Watercolor - Done on site
Pen & Ink Drawings
筆墨藝術
You’ve probably noticed these gaudy signatures on many of my photos and other art- These are watermarks digitally put on the images. They are not on the originals. They are simply put there to protect my art from digital theft, a copyright measure. If I arrange to send you one of these images, the watermark will be removed.
“Curtiss P-40 Warhawk”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Birches for Robert Frost”
(2014) Pen & Ink
“Mohandas Gandhi”
(2010) Pen & Ink
“David Bowie”
(2016) Pen & Ink
“Death on the Nile”
(2016) Pen & Ink
“Self Portrait”
(2019) Pen & Ink
“Distrust”
(1998) Pen & Ink - Fantasy Art
“John Donne - No Man is an Island”
(1998) Pen & Ink doodle
“Sun Paladin”
(2015) Pen & Ink Fantasy Art
“There are Many Events in the Womb of Time - Othello (Act 1 Scene 1)”
(2015) Pen & Ink colored with Photoshop
“Ocklawaha River, North Florida”
(2014) Pen & Ink
“Kisa Gotami & the Mustard Seeds”
(2014) Pen & Ink
modified with photoshop (border) Used my own hand for model, right before I broke it.
“Carl Jung”
(2010) Pen & Ink
“Colossus of Rhodes”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Dave Bell”
(2014) Pen & Ink
“Caught Red Handed”
(1998) Pen & Ink - Fantasy Art
“The Blind Beggar”
(2016) Pen & Ink
“The River, Mountain, & the Moon - Lethe”
(2024) Pen & Ink Illustration for poem
“Annabel Lee - Poem by Edgar Allen Poe”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Bali Hatten Wine (Story of Using a Corkscrew to Open a Wine Bottle With a Twist Cap)”
(2014) Pen & Ink
“Dorothy & the Witch”
(2016) Pen & Ink
“Easter Island Moái (Not another @#$*! sunset)”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Irreconcilable Differences”
(1998) Pen & Ink - Fantasy Art
“The Old Lie - Dulce et Decorum Est”
(2014) Pen & Ink - doodle in sketchbook (not traced, but copied and modified from image from Wikipedia on WWI)
“First Encounter with the Meta Fish - Lethe”
(2014) Pen & Ink Illustration for poem
“Meeting Charon Near the Shores of the Meta Temple”
(2014) Pen & Ink illustration for poem
“How All Occasions - Hamlet (Act 4 Scene 4)”
(2014) Pen & Ink First sketch I did after my right hand healed from a break.
“Temple of Artemis at Ephesus”
(2015) Pen & ink
“Mausolus at Halicarnassus”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“The Death of Artemisia of Halicarnassus”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“The Destruction of Mausolus at Halicarnassus”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Cave Painting of the Five Rivers”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“The MacGuffin”
(8/19.2020) Pen & Ink - Fantasy Art
“Covid Quarantine”
(7/14/2020) Pen & Ink
“Ubi Dubium, ibi Liberatas”
(2014) Pen & Ink illustration for poem
“Hospital Window Broken Hand”
(2014) Pen & Ink
“One Ring to Rule Them All - L.O.T.R. Poem”
(1989) Pen & Ink & mixed media calligraphy project for high school art class.
I cringe at this now, but Mr. Miley, our one decent art teacher we had for the entire time I was in Keystone Heights High School, did a lesson on traditional English calligraphy. I can draw skulls much better than this now, and I’ve kept up using calligraphy writing on various projects, even using it as a lesson for some of my students. I have always been a big fan of the Tolkien books, and mind you, this is long before Peter Jackson’s LOTR movie ever debuted, so there was no influence from any of that material. This was the first time I started using technical pens, the type used by architects on a special semi-transparent vellum paper (normal paper is too fibrous, and clogs up the pens). Nowadays, I use very fine-tipped German felt tip markers (of varying sizes from 3 to .005) that are disposable. Later projects I did, I also incorporated using gold or copper leaf paper.
Maybe in the near future I’ll do a remake of this, but I have so many other projects on my plate at the moment.
“Map of the United Kingdom”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Flooded Graveyard”
(10/7/2017) Pen & Ink
“Tiantan Temple, Tiantan Park, Beijing, China”
(2002) Pen & Ink- sketched on location
“The Venus of Willendorf”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“虎跳峽 Tiger Leaping Gorge”
(2002) Pen & Ink - sketched on location
“Mother with Child”
(2019) Pen & Ink (Illustration inspired by Johnathan Swift)
“Akira”
(2015) Pen & Ink - drawn freehand from film still
“Vincent Price”
(2016) Pen & Ink
“It Can’t Rain All the Time” (from the movie ‘The Crow’)
(2017) Pen & Ink
“Soko’s Mother”
(2023) Electronic Drawing on iPad
Soko’s mother resting, while I was in Japan for her father’s one-year anniversary of his passing. At the Ishita’s home for about 4 days. I have done a little bit of computer animation, and have done some rudimentary drawings using computer art applications, but this was the first time that I can remember drawing someone in real time using an electronic device. I’m happy with it, and would like to do more.
“Osaka Jo, Cherry Blossom Season, Osaka, Japan”
(2003) Pen & Ink - sketched on location
“Orrery”
(2016) Pen & Ink
“Motorcycle in Countryside of Taiwan”
(2021) Pen & Ink -Inspired by photo done by Jay Mac
“Poem & Illustration- A Shopshire Lad LVIII by A.E. Houseman”
(2014 & bottom pic 2019) Pen & Ink
“Wilson”
(2016) Pen & Ink - doodle in sketchbook
“Falling Angel - Azimuth Mach Waves”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Whale Fall”
(2015) Pen & Ink Illustration for a poem
“River Leading to the Forgotten City”
(2015) Pen & Ink Illustration for poem
“Forgotten City”
(2015) Pen & Ink illustration for poem
“The Elephant in the Room”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“Lighthouse at Alexandria”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“The Mountain, the River, and the Moon: Bewitching Hour”
(2015) Pen & Ink Illustration for poem
“Breaking Through the Surface”
(2015) Pen & Ink Illustration for poem
“The Temple of Zeus at Olympia”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“The Hedge”
(2014) Pen & Ink Illustration from dream journal
“Penelope - The Unweaving”
(2014) Pen & Ink Illustration for poem
“Devonian Dreams”
(2014) Pen & Ink
“Sextant”
(2015) Pen & Ink
“The Hanging Gardens of Babylon”
(2015) Pen & Ink
Prints
版畫
You’ve probably noticed these gaudy signatures on many of my photos and other art- These are watermarks digitally put on the images. They are not on the originals. They are simply put there to protect my art from digital theft, a copyright measure. If I arrange to send you one of these images, the watermark will be removed.
“Balinese Turtle”
(2014) Lineoleum Print
“Tea Kettle in the Afternoon”
(2014) Lineoleum Print
“Bicycle Wheel and Manhole”
Glass Print (vitreography) 1997
“飛魚 Flying Fish”
(2014) Lineoleum Print
“Pterodactyl Fossil”
(2014) Lineoleum Print
“Memory”
(1996) Triptych Zinc Plates Print (mono print 1/1)
“Memory II”
(1997) Lithograph Print (mono print 1/1)
Photography
照片
You’ve probably noticed these gaudy signatures on many of my photos and other art- These are watermarks digitally put on the images. They are not on the originals. They are simply put there to protect my art from digital theft, a copyright measure. If I arrange to send you one of these images, the watermark will be removed.
“Dali Old City, Yunnan Province, China”
(2002) Photograph
“Looking Out at Snow Jade Dragon Mountain, Lijiang Yunnan Provence, China”
(2002) Photograph
“Agung Rai Museum of Art, Bali, Indonesia”
(2014) Photograph
“Night Shot, Canal from Bridge, Venice Italy”
(2019) Photograph
“Street Signs in Macau”
(2011) Photograph
“Night Shot, Hotel Garden, Bali”
(2014) Photograph
“Gondolas Passing, Venice Italy”
(2019) Photograph
“Saturday Morning Dragon Boats on Love River Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2005) Photograph
“Mt. Fuji from Fujinomiya Town, Fugaku Prefecture, Japan”
(2011) Photograph
“Having Some Tea in Taipei at ‘Ponder Coffee’ 琢磨 咖啡/茶館”
(2023) Photograph
“Tong-Hai, Kenting Rd. Kenting, Taiwan”
(2018) Photograph
“Hokkaido Countryside”
(2009) Photograph
“Students Hanging Out Outside the Uffizi Museum, Florence Italy”
(2019) Photograph
“Traditional Nebuta Museum, Aomori Japan”
(2007) Photograph
“Construction on North Side of Island - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Photograph
“Bow of Boat, Kim Bồng carpentry village Hội An, Vietnam”
(2014) Photograph
“Liuhe Night Market 六合夜市, Kaohsiung Taiwan”
(2002) Photograph long exposure night shot with my Canon digital Camera
“Downtown Construction, Chengdu City, Sichuan province, China”
成都市, 四川省(2002) Photograph
“Fellow Backpackers Ben (Germany) and Roschin (Ireland), Lijiang China, Yunnan Provence”
(2002) Low Exposure Photograph
“Palm Trees Under Evening Sky - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Photograph
“Temple near Chungdu City Zoo, Chungdu Provence”
(2002) Photograph
“At one of the many Temples - Cambodia”
(2011) Photograph
“Tsumago Historical Village, Emperor’s Loging (Museum), Nagano Japan”
(2005) Photograph
“Facing Piazzale Michelangelo from the Uffizi Museum, Florence Italy”
(2019) Photograph
“Morning Path, Guanziling 關子嶺 , Taiwan”
(2010) Photograph
“Dark Sunset - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Photograph
“Green Lanterns - Hội An, Vietnam”
(2018) Photograph
“Marketplace on North Side of Island - Boracay, Philippines”
(2006) Photograph
“Kim Bồng Carpentry Village Hội An, Vietnam”
(2004) Photograph
“Dali Old City Outskirts Looking Towards Ear Lake, Yunnan province, China”
(2002) Photograph
“Early Morning on Side Street in Lijiang Old City, Yunnan Province”
麗江古城, 雲南省
(2002) Photograph
“LeShan Temple Walkway 樂山寺, Sichuan Province, China”
(2002) Photograph
“Fruit Stand on one of many Houseboats in the Mekong River - border of Vietnam and Cambodia”
(2011) Photograph
“Roadside Shop, Afternoon Siesta, Hội An, Vietnam”
(2016) Photograph
“Pond, Guanziling 關子嶺 , Taiwan”
(2010) Photograph
“Traditional Lamps, Hội An at the Thu Bồn Riverside, Vietnam”
(2012) Photograph Long Exposure on my Canon Digital Camera
“Low Tide at Dock, Phuket, Thailand”
(2001) Photograph
“The Forbidden City, Beijing, China”
(2002) Photograph
“Photo of Model Being Photographed, Grand Canal Venice”
(2019) Photograph
“Entering Tiger Leaping Gorge 虎跳峡, Yunnan Provence, China”
2002 photo
When taking vast shots, such as this, it’s important to put a person, or something similarly anthropomorphic in the shot to show the scale of the photo; a car, a house, an animal will do… but I’ve taken too many photos of vast seas, mountains, fields… to realize they have no reference point… unless, of course, as an artist, that’s your intention. To quote: “I am sure the next step will be the electronic image, and I hope I shall live to see it. I trust that the creative eye will continue to function, whatever technological innovations may develop.” - Ansel Adams.
“Tiger Leaping Gorge, Looking Back 虎跳峡, Yunnan Provence, China”
2002 photo
As I was exiting the gorge looking back behind me on the last day there; one last shot, as the sun set on the entire gorge. (60km from Lijiang City). We made it back down as it was getting dark to the bus station that would take us back to Lijiang after a 3 day stay in the gorge. There are golden moments etched in my mind… photos are little reminders of those memories, that I also get to share with others.
“Shibu Onsen - Nagano Prefecture, Honshu Japan”
(2005) Photograph
“Onsen” (溫泉) Is simply Japanese for “Hot Spring” So, many places in Japan have the name followed by ‘Onsen’. This is not so different from many places in the U.S. such as Palm Springs, California, or Coral Springs, Florida. One cultural difference in Asia, especially in China, is that people do not like to use unpleasant adjectives, especially, “Death” in the name of a town or place. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a “Death Valley” in S.E. Asia.
Shibu Onsen, located in Nagano, really deserves the name; filled with temples and scores of public hot-springs (especially for such a small town). There are many ‘ryokan’ hotels (traditional Japanese structures) that have a history stretching back more than 400 years. Picturesque is an understatement when it comes to this place.
Local Temple in Soko’s Hometown - Aomori, Honshu Japan
(2023) Photograph
Myself, Soko, the Buddhist temple’s caretaker, and Soko’s brother. Soko has known the caretaker (shown here) since she was little. From this temple, you can see most of the town of Aomori (or more appropriately the suburbs of it), but Aomori is very bucolic and spread out; it is a bit of a drive to get into the main part of the city. At another temple down the road, we attended the one-year anniversary of her father’s passing. A simple ceremony, with a Buddhist priest, a small offering, and then the decedent is given a new name for the afterlife. The entire ceremony probably only lasted a half an hour.
“Black Dragon Pool, Lijiang Old Section,Yunnan province, China”
(2002) Photograph
“JiuFen 九份, New Taipei- View from the Bus Stop”
(2023) Panoramic Photograph
“JiuFen 九份, New Taipei- View from the Bus Stop Looking North”
(2023) Panoramic Photograph
Jiufen (九份) At mid morning on May 16th-17th. Located in Ruifang District of New Taipei City. The town of Ruifang 瑞芳區 is on the tip top of the entire island of Taiwan, a little to the east. I had some expensive tea, and a nice dinner looking out on a spectacular sunset. The stairs here are ancient and very vertical.
From the Internet: Founded during the Qing Dynasty, this small town was a relatively isolated village until the discovery of gold during the Japanese occupation in 1893, quickly developing the town due to a gold rush. Many buildings in the town remain unchanged to this day, reflecting the Japanese influence on both architecture and culture on the island. During World War II, the town housed a Japanese prisoner of war camp where captured Allied Force soldiers (mainly British) were forced to work in the gold mines. After the war, gold mining activities declined, and the town today exists mainly as a tourist destination remembering and celebrating Taiwanese history and culture.
This is also one of the settings that the famous Japanese animation director, Hayao Miyazaki (i.e. creator of "Totoro"... and is basically the Walt Disney of Japan and most of Asia... but better than old Walt); JiuFen was used for the backdrop of "Spirited Away"
”JiuFen 九份, Main Courtyard, and Teahouses”
(2023) Photograph
“Back Home: Kaohsiung Skyline, Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
(2017) Photograph
One of the few night shots I attempted with my smart phone camera. The empty lot this was taken from is probably developed now, so this particular angle is probably not possible now. What do I love about Kaohsiung? There must be some reason, I’ve lived here for over 20 years. There’s something about Southern Taiwan, just like my home country of living in the South- everything moves at a different pace. Once you get to know a little of the language, the jargon, the pulse of the city, when you have met and come to fall in love with the people here, it changes your soul… and at this point, it’s a big part of my life experience. Don’t ask me to compare how I felt about this place when I first arrived, that’s like asking someone to compare what they were like as a kid to how they are now- It’s hard to put into a neat little paragraph under a photo. You just get attached to a place, and then you develop ‘an experienced love’ (not the impulsive kind), and before you know it, it has become your second skin. I’m a huge Tolkien fan (and I don’t care who knows that); it inspired me from a young age to see outside world. To quote: “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”.
Miscellaneous:
Behind the Scenes, Events, Travels, Video Links, and other art.
Painting down by Love River in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
New Immigrants Festival in Kaohsiung (2020, August 5th) With Soko, Vega, & Vadim.
New Immigrants Festival in Kaohsiung (2020, August 5th) Soko’s stand, “The Cos Place” She did far better than I did. She often makes our Halloween costumes, a few for friends, and made our costumes for Carnival when we visited Venice in 2019.
New Immigrants Festival in Kaohsiung (2020, August 5th) Vega and Vadim helped me set up for this event. They run:
Balalaika Music Studio
“Artist Village, Taiwan” (2020) Last week of February and completed around the first week of March. A Canadian friend who is a local photographer has a lot of his shots of interesting corners of Taiwan. Inspired me to do a painting from one of his many photos.
Highlights to a comic I did years ago called “Captain Foreigner”. I’d probably update it, if I were ever put it back into circulation. I actually took me several years to make.
Documenting a painting I made using a new time-lapse APP to show my process. The first half is a brief tutorial on acrylic painting.
Kenting, Pintung County, Taiwan (2019)
A little north of Kenting, White Sands Beach, and the Night Market. Looking out on the China Sea.
My Trumpet
Something to keep the neighbors banging on their ceilings or floors
Local art exhibition by some fellow ex-pats and Taiwanese friends at the Dog & Pig Cafe. (2007) Wufu Road, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
On the Great Wall of China, three hours north of Beijing, 2002, China
The Taipei 101 Building still under construction in April of 2003, Taipei, Taiwan. At the Beastie Boys Tibetan Freedom Concert.
A Tale of Two Typhoons: Dujuan (2015) and Megi (2016) exactly one year apart. Just what a typical typhoon is like in Taiwan. But these two were a little more nasty. The worst one was in 2009; Typhoon Morako killed 673 Taiwanese, and left 26 missing. Including the village of Siaolin 小林里 killing 471 people. Where a mudflow completely covered the northern half of the village.
Some of my English Students in Taiwan: Halloween (2022)
At Universal Studios, Orlando Florida
From left to right: Soko, with my nieces Jade and Sierra (January 26th, 2023) In Harry Potter World
My Father’s Guitar in our old living room in Ft. McCoy (2023)
To the right is the portrait of my dad tuning this guitar that cannot be seen in this light. Lit a candle that was sitting there, looked worth a picture. Yes, that’s a bucket of drummer sticks (even though he didn’t play the drums), I was told somewhere in the house was a bucket of harmonicas that were collected from around the house after his passing. I didn’t find that, but I did find the other two trumpets I played in high school, plus his old coronet, that I first practiced on.
More stuff in our old house down in Ft. McCoy (2023)
On the top shelf: my (and my father’s) coronet that I played in high school, a picture of the Virgin Islands, a picture of my mother. From there on some old cameras, and other memorabilia collected over decades.
“Invictus Ship 2017” (2017)
Pen & Ink
“Invictus Ship 2017” (2017)
Pencil drawing overlaid with longhand of poem.
“Hội An Floods” (2020) Finished! Although I copied it from a photo of a photo off of the cover of a book that I took outside the window on display. I loved doing the image, and it kicked started a long stint I had gone without painting. It only took almost being killed by a drunk driver. I did three paintings while having to let my legs heal in a local nursing home.
“Artist Village, Taiwan” (2020)
Basic image laid down on canvas from a grid from the notes I made from the photo. Nothing traced.
“Year of the Pig” (2007)
This video is quite old, and there are some things I would change (and might do in the near future). I ended up narrating this myself.
As with most of my stuff here, it’s mostly D.I.Y. as I slowly build all this online by myself. Some images borrowed, but the watercolors of the animals are all done by me.
“Venice Jazz Club” (2019)
Last night in Venice before returning to Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
“Venice Jazz Club” (2019)
A small get together at a friend’s house on Dragon Boat Festival, Tainan, Taiwan (2020) Taiwan was absent of any domestic cases of COVID-19 until the middle of this year (2021). Since then, masks, gatherings of any sort, public venues have all been drastically restricted; anyone coming into Taiwan has always had to follow a strict two week quarantine after entering the country regardless of vaccination status, or country of origin.
Taking a break from navigating the streets of Hoi An, Vietnam (2018).
Traditional Village of Tsumago, Nagano Prefecture, Japan 2005
A very cold day at a beautiful historic town that was often used by the Emperors of Japan as a stop over on their way to and from the Capitol.
My Niece, Jade on her birthday- A present I did in a little under 6 hours. “Bling Cow” Acrylic on Canvas …. She seemed to like it (Feb. 6th 2023)
Gainesville Clock Tower Painting (2023)
One last look at it in the natural light before applying an acrylic gloss to the painting (it helps to mimic the wetness of an oil painting) One of two full size paintings I managed to paint while over in Ft. McCoy.
Seeing my father’s old friends since the funeral, downtown Gainesville
(2023) Many of my father’s friends, some I haven’t seen in a very long time. I even took a geology class with Jerry (behind me) over at Santa Fe Community College.
Soko, and her friend Rio at Tokyo Disney (2023)
Soko also had to fly back to Japan for family business, and along the way see some of her old friends in Tokyo. We are having to fly back in late July for her father’s one year anniversary of her father’s passing (neither of us were able to get back in time for our father’s funerals); I was also stuck in hospital at the time of my father’s passing, and COVID-19 complicated things even further.
"Starry Night” (2018)
Drawn with a fresh pack of crayons.
Almost finished. “Starry Night” -materials used (I think if Van Gogh had access to some crayons, he would have gone crazy using them).
“Artist Village, Taiwan” Getting started. Just get rid of all that white, by putting some paint to canvas.
A quick scooter ride down to Kenting back in 2017. On Labor Day Weekend.
“Artist Village, Taiwan” Getting there. I use masking tape to get some of the straight edges. It is copying, but the idea is to make it my image, and to let the material of the paint show through. Drawing or painting something really makes one critically observe that thing in detail.
“Fembot 2.0 Firefight in City”
(2019) Pen and Ink - Fantasy art
“Taiwan Sketchbook Mural of Taiwan” (2015)
The sketchbook I bought in Japan at the Nikkozan Rinnoji Temple in 2012. I wasn't sure what to do with this small fold-out sketchbook for some time. The dimensions are 7cm height and 270cm in length! I finally was inspired by a road trip I did down to Kenting, and decided to make a mural of basically four places in Taiwan that I have done road trips to before: (in order from left to right) Kenting, Pingtung, Guanziling, Sanxiantai 三仙台, and finally Tairoko Gorge (based on photos I took periodically while traveling around Taiwan, mainly on my scooter or bicycle).
I found this impossible to make into a panoramic picture, because the drawing is 9 feet long (a high definition image making it impossible to download on my computer as one file).
The only way I could document it, was to make a video of it. Excuse the cheesy piano music (it's royalty free). And I had to redo this video several times using a combination of Photoshop, iMovie Maker, and After Effects.
Angkor Thom (Bayon) & The Temple of Elephants, Cambodia (2011)
Fangshan Township, Pingtung Country, Taiwan (2016) With fellow cyclists heading down to Taiwan, and some all around the island on the Spring Break weekend.
Mt. Fuji, (2005) located on the island of Honshu, not far by train from Tokyo. It is the highest mountain in Japan, standing at 3,776.24 m (12,389.2 ft).
A typical rainy day, or a close typhoon near our old apartment here in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. We also have Plum Rain Season (梅雨季節). Which will bring days or even weeks of continuous rain.
Kaohsiung in the Rain, Summer of 2017
A typical rainy season, known as “Plum Rain” 梅雨季節 in S.E. Asia. I was experimenting heavily with Apple’s ‘After Effects’, and also trying to work out royalty free videos (hence my only published trumpet song: “Coffee Cup Handle Riff”. Re-edited in 2021.
Not You Again (I had a doormat that said this).
Something I Painted to hang on the front door out in the house where I grew up in Ft. McCoy, Florida (2023)
"Tongmeng Park Drawn With Left Hand” (2014)
Small pencil drawing done in Tongmeng Park, a bike path. Drawn with my left hand when my right hand was broken and in a cast (a separate accident from a few years earlier). Given to a friend.
Selfie- taken on the way into Gainesville while on my most recent trip back to Florida (2023)
Dad, sister Amy, and me (1977?)
In front of our house out in Ft. McCoy, Florida. Barefoot, with two horses and a cow in the pasture off to the right.
"Akira" (2015)
Pen & Ink Based on a film still from Akira (Japanese: アキラ) the classic 1988 Japanese post-apocalyptic anime film.
Celebrating my birthday on St. Patrick’s Day (2018) My birthday is not on that holiday, but close enough. Excuses excuses…
“Pier 22, Kaohsiung Harbor” Painting while recovering from injuries suffered in 2020. Bones almost healed. Had to spend some time between the hospital and home briefly at a nursing home. Painting helped pass the time incredibly well.
“Pier 22, Kaohsiung Harbor” Finished!
“Artists’ Village, Taiwan” Finished! I ended up doing one other painting based on his photographs, but as appreciation for helping me with my painter’s form of writer’s block, I gave this painting to him. Luckily, the caretakers let me just use a small table in the corner of the recreation room to paint (and occasionally leave my materials out over night). There wasn’t much else to do except let my bones heal, practice my Chinese with the caretakers and nurses and fellow patients who spoke very little English. It also helped keep my mind off my father’s passing, which happened while I was convalescing here and couldn’t attend the funeral. Especially at the beginning of the COVID crisis and confined to a wheelchair on the opposite side of this lonely planet.
“The Joker” (2019)
Colored Pencil on gray paper.
Soko and I as the Yip Yip Monsters on Halloween (2012). That time stamp has become annoying, but while I couldn’t turn it off- Halloween would be help around the nearest weekend.
Myself as Jedi Ghost - Photoshopped
Venta de croquettes en La Habana, Cuba (1961) - Oh sorry, just photoshopped. My father, and a few of my own friends have been to Cuba. It’s actually high on my bucket list.
2017, Pingtung Country, Taiwan. A nice old retired policeman, who runs a antiques shop near Kenting. He let me recharge my bicycle battery, and he pulled out his old nickel-plated trumpet and played a few tunes together. I cycled the rest of the way to Kenting later that night. (This was my first night trip cycling to Kenting).
Star Ferry, Hong Kong (2011)
Year of the Pig (2007) Over Taroko Gorge Mountains & down to Puli
This was probably one of the last trips we took through this route on scooters. This video is meant for documenting my trips around Taiwan, and not meant from any commercial use.
Ft. McCoy: This Old House
A brief description of my last 3 months staying out at the house that I grew up in (along with some family photos, and other stories about growing up there). A kind of tribute to my dad, who passed away back in December of 2019; right before COVID and right after I was hospitalized by a drunk driver in Taiwan. This was the first chance I had to get back home after making somewhat of a full recovery. All of this done in one sitting (one take) and not scripted on the 3rd to last day before returning to Taiwan... Edited down to just over 20 minutes (about 15 min. of me talking, a kind of photomontage at the end).
Halloween Sketch I did and later gave away (based on an abandoned half-submerged Church) (2017)
Agricultural Event, down in Aozihdi Park, in downtown Kaohsiung (2017)
Article: Miami Herald
Back in the 1990’s my sister discovered an 18ft./5.5 meter python under our grandparent’s tool shed. My sister got on the local news, as three grown men wrestled the snake out from under the shed. My grandmother later remarked that she had wondered where all the stray cats she fed in the neighborhood had gone off to.
“Hanging Out at Rick's Café” (2016) Photoshop
“Mỹ Sơn, Ninh Thuận, Vietnam”
(2004) Photograph with my first digital camera.
An area of abandoned ruins left behind by a tribe of Hindu pirates, whose civilization lasted between the 4th to 14th centuries. It is located in central Vietnam, not far from Da-nang. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unfortunately it was located on the DMZ during the Vietnam War, and was heavily bombed during the Nixon Administration; huge bomb craters can still be seen today. Despite this, several of the buildings/temples are remarkably well preserved.
“Nebuta Museum, Aomori Japan” (2007)
Soko and I at the museum, where they display and also make traditional paper lantern floats. Aomori is Soko’s home town.
Viewing “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. Unfortunately, this is not the original famous 1665 Vermeer painting, but a reproduction done, along with other Vermeer reproductions by students studying the famous Dutch artist in an exhibition right next to my apartment at the Kaohsiung Science and Technology Museum; showing theories of how he made his incredible photo-realistic paintings (pin-hole projections with special lenses, etc.). I did get to see an actual Vermeer painting in New York in 1994 on a college field trip to see the museums and the city with fellow U.F. art students.
Since this exhibition, I saw a wonderful documentary called “Tim’s Vermeer” (2013) by an inventor Tim Jenison, narrated by his friend Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame), and featuring artist David Hockney. The inventor discovered a groundbreaking new technique that may have been used by the painter, with readily available materials found in the 17th century. He gives some strong evidence by perfectly reproducing one of Vermeer’s paintings using this technique. And the kicker, Jenison had never painted anything in his life.
“David Meets David at Accademia Gallery of Florence”
(2019) Selfie
Viewing “The Birth of Venus” (1486) Bottiecelli, At the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy
The Uffizi Museum in Florence has works by just about every prominent artist of the Renaissance. Everyone from Leonard daVinci, Fillippo Brunelleschi, Raphael, Titian, Filippo Lippi, Albrecht Dürer, to Michelangelo (just to name a few).
"Terra Cotta Warrior Series" (2010)
(Completed, but needs to be properly photographed) A series of 25 individual portraits of Terra Cotta Warriors. Each is a 27cm x 35cm acrylic painting on canvas.
"Soko outside Tokyo Disney" (2023)
Before seeing me in north Florida, Soko made a trip to see her family up in Aomori (on the northern most point of Honshu). But she spent a day or so in Tokyo where many of her friends are; we met while traveling in mainland China, while she was living in Tokyo and I was living in southern Taiwan, in Kaohsiung.
Visiting the Hokusai Museum (2005) Obuse, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is probably one of the best known of Japanese artists in the world. Best known for his woodblock prints, with his image “The Great Wave off Kangawa". The museum features a good variety of his works, his tools, and his writings, along with art by other prominent artists of his era (the Edo Period). You can also see the original woodblocks, and displays showing the different colored layers of his prints and the process of how the prints were made. If you enjoy printmaking, like me, if you have time, this museum is a must-see.
“Hokusai Museum in Obuse, Japan”
(2005) Giant Brush Calligraphy- practiced by Hokusai.
“Experience is a Hidden Place” (1994) Part of a mural done with fellow art students done while at the University of Florida. In the parking lot in the back of one of the major book stores on the north side of West University Avenue, across from the U.F. campus. My niece got a more recent shot of it before this area was demolished.
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams 2016" (2016)
(2016) Mixed media: Originally pen & ink, then colorized and added text with Photoshop
Taking a morning break in Xishan National Park before heading to Dragon Gate Temple (2002) 西山國家公園, 雲南昆明 This was my first big trek outside of Taiwan- Three months backpacking across China. This was when I decided to start keeping a journal when I made longer trips like this one; maybe inspired by the ship’s logs my dad would keep every time we took our grandparents’ sailboat down around the Florida Keys; marking down everywhere we stopped at, the weather, and where we would drop anchor for any period of time, along with anything else worth mention about the day’s trek. It has become a valuable tool when recalling where and when and who I was with on such excursions. Also this by the end of this trip, I had started keeping a small art kit to do sketches, even watercolors in (I discovered watercolor paints do not take up much space at all, and any thicker paper will do for a quick sketch). I’ve just found it helps me concentrate on what I’m looking at, as opposed to taking a quick shot on my phone… mind you this was (2002年) right before everyone had cameras on their phones. Most cameras on our phones still have trouble taking long-exposure shots (i.e. night time, or low-light shots), but lugging around my Canon camera has become a bit cumbersome- I do have a stand for it, and now use it specifically to do night time shots.
At Xiowan Beach in Kenting, Taiwan (2016) One of the most popular beaches in Taiwan.
“Moving Into 221b Baker Street” (2020) Photoshop Too much time on my hands.
“Mỹ Sơn, Ninh Thuận, Vietnam - Dangerous Shortcut”
(2004) Photograph with my first digital camera.
While at Mỹ Sơn, I broke off from the main tourist group and went exploring off path a bit; there was a small river that ran through the site off in the jungle that I easily traversed, and climbed a rather steep slope just to find myself on the far end of the site. There was one sign down near the river warning of tigers… but it wasn’t until looking back over my shoulder where I had come from that I saw a bigger sign saying, “Stay on Path- Unexploded Land Mines.” Lesson learned. One of our guides in neighboring Cambodia told us the land mines actually had a silver lining: they kept looters away from the harder to reach temples out in the jungles that had yet to be properly examined and documented.
“St. Mark’s Square Carnival, Venice Italy”
(2019) Photograph
I only made the masks, Soko made the costumes we wore to Carnival.
St. Mark’s Square Carnival, Venice Italy (2019) Costumes by Soko; she got me to make the masks. I didn’t know what they were for until we got to Venice, I truly didn’t know how elaborate her costumes were. I knew she did a good job when we (the tourists) became the tourist attraction. Venice has been through so much since we were there; a historic flood, and then with COVID-19. The calamities have been relentless on Venice over these last two years.
Viewing “Medusa” (1597) At the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy
Downstairs on the opposite side of the museum I had just enough time to see one of my favorite of the Renaissance painters, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (28 September 1571 – 18 July 1610). His life and his death are almost as famous as his art.
“All works, no matter what or by whom painted, are nothing but bagatelles and childish trifles… unless they are made and painted from life, and there can be nothing… better to follow nature” - Caravaggio.
“Gator Hole in the Ghetto” (2014)
Acrylics on door. Painted on my father’s door.
At our friends’ wedding, Charlie and Lisa’s in 2006, in British Columbia in Greater Victoria. The wedding was held near this building seen here in the background, the Hatley Castle built in 1908, which has been used for the Royal Roads Military College. But many will recognize it for something else, as it served as a filming location for the “The X-Men” movie series, as Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
"Silver Springs Park- Manatees" (2023)
Near the end of my stay back in my hometown in north Florida, decided to go to the Silver Springs Park- I hadn’t been there since I was a little kid. The glass bottom boat ride is pretty much how I remembered it. We got lucky and got to see some manatees. This area of Silver Springs is fed water from a subterranean system of caves- one of the largest systems of underwater freshwater caves in the world.
"Glass Bottom Boat Tours - Silver Springs State Park" (2023)
Located in Marion County, Florida. It is the largest artesian spring in the world (artesian springs are springs where the water flows to the surface without the aid of a pump). The park is also one of the oldest tourist attractions in Florida. The first glass bottom boats were invented in Marion County, FLA. by two men in 1878; Hullam Jones and Philip Morrell. The first boats were simply canoes with a glass viewing box at the bottom. The current boats date back to the 1950’s. Several famous TV shows and movies were shot at this unique site, including the TV series “Sea Hunt” (1958), and movies such as “Tarzan the Ape Man” (1932), and the original classic “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954).
Plucking corn kernels in Baisha Village, just north of Lijiang City, Yunnan Provence (2002) Out with some fellow travelers, we all went cycling to the foot of Snow Jade Dragon Mountain, in a small village called Baisha. I think the locals were fairly used to foreigners passing through as a tourist attraction. The entire area is not far from Shagri La, at the feet of the Himalaya Mountains - Lijiang is already at 2,400 meters/7874ft above sea level, and I met at least one traveler who had to leave because the elevation was too high and giving her chronic headaches. If one wants to travel into Tibet from here, they have to rent a truck, and take a few days to drive in. This is to give people a chance to acclimate to the higher altitudes. This was the farthest west I went on my 3 month trek around China.
Baisha Village, Just North of Lijiang City 白沙村, 麗江市雲南省 (2002) One family invited us (three other backpackers and me) into their home. Inside their modest house was living room with even more corn piled around; a TV and a karaoke machine, so that they could shuck corn and be entertained on the cold nights there. Two of their children- also not shown here was a very ornery bull that was kept inside a very rickety wooden fence.
Killing Time: Sketching in Venice (2019) Hanging out at an outdoor cafe near the apartment stayed at in Venice on a small street called Campiello Crosetta. Cars, motorcycles, even bicycles are restricted in Venice. Even emergency vehicles are boats that use the canals.
Doing some sketching down at Banana Bay in Kenting, Taiwan (2017) My portable pen and ink kit I take virtually anywhere I go. Did some watercolors, and other drawings after cycling 100km/60mi to Kenting over Chinese New Year. Then I had to cycle the 100km back up to Kaohsiung.
Contact Information
This is a new website, so at the moment, I am simply directing your email to davidrobertsstudios@yahoo.com, where I will manage any group notifications about any upcoming events, or individually answer any questions to anyone who has a question via email.
Please leave any questions or comments. I am not interested in sending you any notices if you do not wish to receive any (apologies - I am double checking the automatic settings, and do not wish to send any ads, or anything that even resembles spam). I will do my best to make sure this site does not send any cookies. You can check the blog/events page: The button is at the top, or just here below is the events calendar.
The purpose of this website at the moment, primarily, is to connect with others in the art community, and to function as an ongoing online portfolio to feature my work.
[Anything political, heavily religious in nature, pornographic, spam, or anything dealing with the current COVID crisis in a political fashion, will not gain a response, and probably be deleted, repeated such emails may be reported - just use common sense]