On painting people I know

Making the likeness of someone I love is neither easier nor harder than making a painting of a stranger, but it is just a little bit more fun!

How to make a living as an artist

1) Make a lot of work.
2) Show a lot of people the best of that work.
3) Be friendly.
4) Repeat.

Speaking of speaking…

I’m doing a talk tomorrow and I did one last week.  With all this lecturing, I’m thinking a lot about how best to engage an audience…

Portrait of a wedding

Two of my dearest friends from college, Christine and Aaron, got married last weekend at Lake Tahoe.

Erzulie Fitzgerald

This combination of a Haitian-American woman with a jazz singer and a Voodoo goddess is in a lot of ways the ultimate cultural mash-up for Apple Pie.

Giving myself a complex

I’ve been obsessed with portraiture’s embattled status since I chose my path in college, but, recently, I’ve realized that my fixation is a bit of a lie.  And it’s the Wizard of Id along with the Oregonian’s editorial staff and a few fellow artists who helped me see how.

Learning from the masters

When an artist looks at a painting, she-he is doing more than simply appreciating the art.  Other artists’ work, like this piece by Pyke Koch, teaches me about what I do.

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