About All This Nonsense...

Contrast & Texture in Art and in Life

To me, all is about contrast & texture. Life and art are nothing without them. Conformity, while sometimes a necessity for economic viability, should never be an objective. My vision of life and art actually includes bland conformity as a minor-scale evil; in my mind, everything worth viewing, listening to and creating should be bright, bold cacophonies of color, sound and taste (or so often, tastelessness).

Miscellaneous Ramblings - Almost a Biography

I currently live and work in rural Northwest Colorado. I am not an artist fully by occupation or by education, but one by chance and necessity. Although the starving artist icon is an intriguing one to me, I have generally preferred to eat more than periodically. After completing a small handful of business degrees, I have worked in various positions in the financial services industry. As you might imagine, in such an industry it is necessary to find an outlet other than one's profession for artistic expression. Hence, the works you will find here. From pen drawings in a sketchbook to midnight splatterings of acrylic paint on monstrous canvases, I have continually maintained this as a conduit for myself. Though many of my paintings did once adorn a few walls during a “First Friday Artwalk” event several years ago, there are really no other showings of note, or art education resume items to boast here...just samples of my work.

Odd Beginnings

As you will see in one of these photos, I picked up a paintbrush fairly early in life. As a three- or four-year-old in Amityville, NY, I spent what seemed like extremely long summer days creating designs with water & brush on our asphalt driveway. I was just happy to be afforded a large and reusable "canvas" with which to pass my time. Amusement came easily to me, and as you might expect, an odd and easily amused child generally grows into an odd and easily amused adult…

I am not sure exactly when it became essential to me, but sometime between those driveway painting afternoons, grade school in Loves Park, IL, college days in Baton Rouge, and becoming a corporate laborer, now here in my favorite of all the places I have lived, I sought the means by which I could adequately express interpretations of my environment, life changes, and surroundings. In this quest, I experimented with many mediums throughout the years. These experiments, some included in the Gallery, include pastel, pen, pencil, watercolor, oil, scratchboard, printing, photography, sculpting, woodworking, amphibian pornography and creative fruit & vegetable peeling (Okay, I got carried away - the last two are bullshit.) After enduring a few rather trying and stressful years early on in my corporate life though, I found that for which I believed I was searching: Canvas, Texture and a Rainbow of Bold Acrylic Pigments.

Acrylic Dreams & Nightmares

I discovered a fundamental catharsis in mapping out representations of raw emotion and world interpretation on large stretched canvas. Strongly texturing them somehow acted only to increase this effect. This is where my concentration remained for a number of years. I suppose it is because of the emotion involved in their creation, along with the experiences creating it, that my small collection of acrylic works appears to be on the darker side to some. I was once told that I should illustrate Stephen King novels; I take that as a great compliment, as that means some of that emotion is coming across to viewers. I do not work purposefully to create disturbed oddities, but have been curiously pleased at the occasional genuinely discomposed and concerned reaction from someone viewing my work in person. Many of these paintings are available for your viewing in the Acrylic Gallery. Interestingly - and sadly - upon the birth of my first daughter, as she slept soundly in the room that used to serve my studio, my canvasses paused being constructed and filled. They remained so for many years. Ironically, only recently at her prodding did I return to complete two paintings now parked in the Acrylic Gallery: “The Justifiable Lynching of a Mime” (begun eighteen years earlier) and “Blood Orange.”

But Wait, There's More...

Another concentration of mine over these long and winding years has been simple pen drawings; small sketchbooks and other bits of paper tend to be a bit more portable than canvas. It was my habit to scribble on just about every green-line report, audit summary and regulatory update manual that I ever had in my hands. Now, of course, with all that being digital, I am required to provide my own medium to facilitate this habit and compulsion. These random notebooks, sketchbooks and memo pads slowly but inexorably get filled with an array of crosshatched or variably shaded pen sketches, largely portraits, abstracts, and varied representations of reveries or studies of one form or another. They have provided me with a needed creative avenue when I cannot haul a large frame or other supplies around with me, and of course when I am bored absolutely to tears during a never-ending plethora of extremely…important…meetings.

A Unique (Maybe) Photographic View

Photography has also long been a love and constant companion through the years. I discarded my trusty Pentax K-1000 and ME Super years ago for the ease of digital, and have upgraded to an incredible Canon SLR along with a succession of better and better iPhones and applications. I have found that proper equipment and practical knowledge are important, but certainly not as vital as perspective and vision. You will find a smattering of photos here at various locations within the Gallery. I hope that you enjoy them.

A New Audio World (For Me)

Much more recently I discovered the accessibility of digital audio recording, and after years of playing guitar every

 day, I acquired a few new instruments and a digital audio workstation application, along with sundry plug-ins. More importantly, over a couple of years, I have learned to use them somewhat proficiently (for me), and am on the cusp of releasing my first double album. I have also taken it upon myself (not that you would necessarily know from the output) to deeply dive into learning about vocal performance, songwriting, guitar, piano and music theory. Though enlivened by this experience, it has also humbled me and has led to a profound understanding and respect for the difficult and creative work of really talented artists, and particularly music producers like Rick Rubin. Soon, in addition to other digital music resources to which I will release my work, this site will become the new home of my band, greenfelt handbag. Just you wait...

The Site

If you managed to get this far down the page without vomiting profusely, I am truly impressed. Although most of this is accurate to the best of my knowledge and recollection, I am amazed that I actually fit so many words on a page without saying anything of substance - Well you be the judge; after all this is art.

Altogether, I have designed and compiled this site for the purpose of offering a glimpse of whatever vision and merry psychoses I might be able to share. I trust that you will enjoy it. Please see each page for a description of what may be happening there. Note, however, that the site remains in the process of being rebuilt after years of inactivity. This is due to its extensive Flash components that I created, and that died horribly and took my original website with them several years ago. This rebirth will happen page by page, gallery by gallery, and image by image...

If you do enjoy what you see here, or alternatively, really despise it, please let me know. There is a Contact form

available at the bottom of each page for you to easily do so. If you are moved by something here, please tell others, and by all means contact me should you have questions, further interest in anything displayed here or have something that you might like to share. And come back…I will continue adding original works as they are completed, organized or photographed.

JPiret