AA Pinacate

The ancient feeling of the Pinacate Bioreserve surrounds you with its volcanic landscape of black cinder. Yet in all of the ancientness, the ʻAʻā (Hawaiian term) or rocky cooled lava looks as though it just happened yesterday. The lava flows are young, as in 40,000 years ago. Once molten and unapproachable, they are still a forbidding place to go. Massive piles of car sized ʻAʻā boulders, steep pits and a surface that is extremely sharp to the touch. Climbing among the lava flows must be done carefully because a misstep would mean certain injury. The going is so tough I've wondered if you tossed something into the center of the flow if it would ever be found again.

This piece was about getting into the detail of the rock and being true to it's nature. When you get into the details, it's more like working on an abstract piece. Natures abstraction pulls you into the details.

Pinacatix Senita

The Pinacate region of Mexico is so unique in the Sonoran Desert I think I'll be doing a number of pieces from the region. Ancient volcanic lava flows created ridges and eddies in the landscape forming little walled gardens. Roaming through them is like being in the backyard of a master gardener.

I was struck by the strength and royal presence of the Senita cactus. It's interesting how the bottom of the stems crawl away from the center, laying on the ground and push up. Weird but it looks like it's very comfortable on the desert floor.

Following this ancient sci-fi aesthetic, I've used slow arcing arrows to mimic the sense of growing up and out, and the circulation of life force all around the cactus. I'm trying to be subtle with this commentary because the true focus is nature itself. This one was pretty fun!

Terminus Pinacatix

Camping on an other-worldly lava flow in Mexico inspired thoughts of targets, portals, and interdimensional travels. Earth symbols surrounded by life symbols in a star chart. This fantasy of looking through the the windscreen of my interstellar ship with targeting interface has me thinking a lot about interface in art. Controls, symbols, maps having internal meaning. Don't hate the interface, become the interface. I admit, I catch myself dreaming of punching radio buttons, pulling scroll bars, and watching lines of code spill into the screen. Oh great RGB, have mercy on me.

Crow Quill and India ink, digitally colored. This will go to print for my next show. From here I move back into painting.