When I first moved to Tucson 30 years ago I would go around and scout out art galleries for possible inclusion (Someday I’ll pen a post about the road paved with cactus thorns getting noticed by art galleries and the frightening parallels to the music biz). There was a gallery in the northeast corner of St Philip’s Plaza, perhaps the Davis Gallery at the time, and to my surprise and delight I ran across a couple large paintings there by my friend and former art teacher (University of Kansas) Mike Ott, who tragically died in 1996. He was best known (to me) for both wearing and creating images of incredibly colorful shirts, both as paintings and lithographs. (I found it difficult to find his work online but managed to come up with a couple)
So in late 2019, I had this idea of making a mosaic shirt and could not help but think of Mike and his work. Thus, ‘Hawaii 01’ is dedicated with much love to Mike Ott, RIP 1946–1996. As soon as I can travel I’ll be driving it to its new home in Kansas, which is most appropriate.
Shortly after making that one, I decided to try my hand at constructing a jean jacket. All of these mosaics are made using broken plates I’ve collected over the past 3-4 years. I have piles of them these days (but will also always accept the kindness of strangers dumping collector’s plates in my yard, or bowling balls, of course). Blue Dream Jacket will also be going to Kansas soon!
Another one, entitled Evangelical Ware, Fall/Winter Line, 2020, offended some folks on the Facialbook. I find an amazing amount of religious iconography in thrift stores and especially in the giant bins at the Goodwill Outlet. Is there some correlation between religion and throw-away culture? Yep, another blog post… This one has not been spoken for.
I made a few more mosaic clothing series pieces in 2020 pictured below. L-R: Microwave Safe, Ducal Camp Shirt, Western Shirt Deluxe. These are all living in my studio (well, ‘Safe’ is in our dining room).
Since I’ve played, maybe, three music gigs since last March, it’s given me an abundance of time to focus on the visual arts. In late 2020 and into 2021 I started experimenting with some new ideas, one of which was to combine mosaic with mixed media assemblage. L-R: Nothing but Blue Skies, Magic Kingdom, Crooksville Red. Blue Skies will soon be living in northern California, Red is near Napa, and Kingdom lives in Alaska, all in really good hands!
Thanks for checking out my work! Please feel free to share with anyone you think might enjoy this post. And, I’ve recently updated my visual art website with these pieces and even more…
And now, you know what…