"The Apple from Rose's Garden"

This painting (oil on canvas, 28" x 22", 2008), a Post-Pop-Art rendition of an apple picked this autumn in our friend Rose's paradise garden, is my gift to my life partner Ron Rubey for our 25th Anniversary.

This picture represents pretty much what is important to me in my artistic work (and please overlook the fact that I might sound pompously pretentious): I, the artist, have crafted the art work myself, it is contemporary (painting executed on October 6, 2008) and has personal meaning (it's not just any tired old apple), the painting shows a clearly readable subject/theme in a generally understandable visual language, the composition and color scheme are controlled and balanced, the seemingly sketchy rendition is based on many years of professional visual work. There is also a vegetarian message here: it is a fruit (I prefer my steak medium). There is an ecological message as well: this apple is not treated chemically therefore bio (as if I cared: I don't really like worms in my fruit). And while we're speaking of apples: the more we know about healthy eating the fatter we get from Fast Food and Diet Sodas. You detect any violence in this picture? No? But you should: I ripped this living thing from a branch like I would tear a hand off a still wiggling arm (greetings from TV's CSI). The socio-political message is, of course: a reverence to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism. And so on, and so forth ... For once, I agree with the totally overrated Picasso when he stated that a real artist gets excited by the simplest, most basic and ordinary things surrounding him.

I'm not religious: Thanksgiving to me is more important if I can say thank you to a specific and special person than to an abstract concept. So, this is to you, Ron: Thank You!