< This is a bag of monkeys. Can you imagine the potential?!

March 18th - Pitcher Boy is back! Everyone's favorite mascot of American torture ethics has more to say. I caught the "This American Life" broadcast called "Habeas Schmabeas" and I believe it. I think some very evil things are going on with innocent people. I was struck by the rich metaphor in the foam cups as mentioned in the story. Perfect victims for a water vessel nemesis. So the foam cup is an innocent detainee who is tortured under suspicion that he is in reality an evil enemy combatant glass. Here is my first test using some new animation techniques. It may take a while to produce this one. Click to see the test.

March 16th - Tucson really isn't a very safe place. We do hear occasional sounds while we are trying to sleep. I want my family to be safe, but there isn't much that I can do. Click image to play.

March 13th - A very important leader in my church, B. K. Packer, is also an amateur artist. The painting of the bird used (without permission) in this animation is his creation. He has written a talk titled "The Arts and the Spirit of the Lord" which describes what kind of artwork, mediums, and styles are appropriate for communicating sacred themes and inviting the Holy Spirit into the lives of those who interact with it. Needless to say, a lot of my artwork is not what the church is looking for as a means to promote their missionary messages.
A wonderful teacher of mine is retiring soon. He taught me a lot about what kind of images and particularly what kind of messages I should be striving for in my art. He cares a lot about his students. When he is particularly frustrated with a student he tends to use a few phrases which I have attempted here to replicate. Of course he sounds like he means it when he says it. Click image to play. Make sure your sound is on.

March 11th - A friend of mine familiar with my church told me that he had a dream where my church president said that is now okay to drink coffee, something that he really wouldn't say. I connected that with things that I wish other people would say, but most likely would never do (based on my assumptions of their character). And of course I had to turn that on myself and try to figure out what I probably wouldn't say, but that others might hope that I would. So here it is for your amusement, the unheard of. Click image to play animation. Mouse over images to activate.

March 9th - Here is a piece I started last year but just finished. It has to do with the medical idea of the four humors. Where your emotions are contained in your bodily fluids. Click image to play.

Just thinking about those pigeons in my yard. Click image to play. Have your sound on and mouse ready.

This piece works okay. I am just thinking about adding some interactivity where the bone is a cursor replacement and each of the three areas only plays on mouse over. What is it about? I am usually pretty quick to say something without worrying about how people will react. But sometimes I wonder if they might just bite my head off right after I say it. Some people have such a poker face when you talk to them. I guess I feel that I deserve a bark and a bite, but most often get a placid look instead. People are nice. . . mostly. Click image to play.

Living in Tucson, AZ, I hear a lot about these people nicknamed, "Coyotes" who for a fee will help people cross the border illegally. I am not so much worried about the illegality of the whole issue as I am about the inhumanity of it. People die out there trying to cross the desert between Mexico and Tucson and other places. So I am working on an interactive piece, like a playable video game. You the player are the coyote, who leads a group of rabbits (immigrants) across the desert. The rabbits face many dangers: scorpions, rattlesnakes, heat, lack of water. The rabbits are also in danger of the eagle (border patrol) carrying them back across the desert to start all over again. Drug running burros also trample the rabbits and then slowly saunter back to the border. I want it to be playable to where the coyote looses rabbits but still makes points. Why use trivial games and humor to talk about serious problems and human life? Because people will look at it, they will think, and hopefully they will say, "Hey, this is not a game. We need to do something!" People are good at ignoring difficult things and tuning out other people's suffering. Those who choose to continue to just see it as a game will preserve their bliss. Those who are ready to act will keep this image in their minds and those problems that it symbolizes.

"First Vision" piece completed. This piece is about representation of a religious event. It uses the same prescribed arrangement of culturally accepted visual elements but uses atypical materials. Is it still sacred? Click on image for larger view.

Air Traffic (Bitterness Makes Sweeter Parting) piece completed? I constructed this piece to illustrate some of my frustrations with living in Tucson. I am facing the prospect of leaving Tucson for a job elsewhere and I am looking for things I don't like that will make parting sweeter. I am not a fan of military jets overhead all of the time. I am not at all comfortable with police helicopters roaming around the house at night. I despise the vermin pigeons all over, but I don't have the disposition to kill them. The endless stucco houses and excess of sand and gravel is not very appealing either. A friend of mine who grew up in the same place in Utah that I did commented that Tucson looks like a huge trailer park. Things I hate, but I will truly miss it here. There is some concern by those who know my work that it doesn't have the same edge as most of the other pieces. I will have to see if there is something else that I may add to it. Click on image for larger view.

Adam's Letter. I believe in a literal Adam and Eve story, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. This piece includes a framed photo I took of a diorama in the NYC Museum of Natural History and a handwritten letter. This is intended as a humorous piece and is not a proclamation. The humorless and religiously insecure should not view it. Click on image for larger view and to risk offense.