My latest birthday trip was booked with one goal in mind: seeing the band Swans at Tucson’s Rialto Theatre. Day of the show, Shaylee and I spent the morning exploring one of Arizona’s most iconic sites: Mission San Xavier del Bac and its nearby hidden gem, Grotto Hill.
The mission, often called the “White Dove of the Desert”, is a masterpiece of Spanish Colonial architecture that looks surreal with it’s almost glowing white color/aura, almost. While most visitors were focusing on the church itself, Shaylee and I checking out Grotto Hill just beside it. The trail takes you past classic desert flora, with tall saguaro cacti all around. At the top, there’s a small grotto built into the rocks with a shrine to the Virgin Mary. People leave candles, flowers, and prayers there, and a marker explains that it was dedicated in 1908 to honor the apparitions at Lourdes in France.
It was a great discovery for me, and it gave me a great excuse to practice using my camera. I look forward to documenting more unique places I find in the desert.
The ornate facade of Mission San Xavier del Bac, the ‘White Dove of the Desert’, standing as one of Arizona’s most iconic landmarks just south of Tucson.A Virgin Mary statue placed inside the rocky niche at Grotto Hill. Faith carved into the Arizona desert landscape.Towering saguaro cacti reach toward the sky in Tucson’s Sonoran Desert.A crumbling adobe wall stands as a reminder of Arizona’s historic desert architecture, overlooking fertile farmland outside Tucson. The mix of rustic ruins and lush fields captures the contrast between the region’s arid landscape and its pockets of agricultural life.The blazing Tucson sun captured in intense light and color.A statue of the Virgin Mary rests in a stone grotto at Tucson’s Grotto Hill, surrounded by colorful flowers left in devotion.A weathered stone lion statue in Tucson shows both strength and time’s passage. Surface is worn, marked but still standing as a guardian figure.The gated altar of Grotto Hill, decorated with flowers and candles, invites visitors to pause and respect this century-old sacred site.A statue of the Virgin Mary rests in a stone grotto at Tucson’s Grotto Hill, surrounded by colorful flowers left in devotion.Towering saguaro cacti reach toward the sky in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson.
On Saturday August 30, 2025 at 6pm there will be a closing reception for my art show at ReBar. This show, loosely titled “Cognitive Errors”, consists of 10 abstract paintings, including a collaborative series painted with Dan Brady called “Shady Ladies“. I appreciate Michelle Graves asking me to feature in the Downtown Las Vegas hangout in the heart of the Arts District. It’s always a pleasure to share my abstract expressionist paintings with people, no matter the setting.
During the closing event, I’ll have a very limited run of handmade CD-R copies of In Relative Obscurity II: Without An End In Mind, which also includes the bonus album CIA Listening Station in Germany. The Berlin recordings were created in June 2022 during my artist residency with The Cube LV Gallery, using field recordings from my time in Europe and guitar sessions at Noisy Rooms.
This release bridges my interest in spacey, guitar-driven drone music with my later Nevada Arts Council grant-funded projects that fully integrate video art for another layer of context and expression. Both iterations of In Relative Obscurity were filmed and performed in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, at the Goldwell Open Air Museum’s Red Barn Arts Center.
For anyone who enjoys supporting unique and small-batch music projects, these CDs are a great way to collect something personal and rare. Whether you put it on for a long ambient drive or simply want to own one of only ten signed and numbered copies, it’s as much a piece of art as it is a listening experience.
Come hangout on Saturday, August 30 and say hello!
“Flesh Toned (Dumpster Fire), 2022, 48″ x 48″, Inks and Acrylics on Found Framed Canvas. Sold in a silent auction on First Friday at Recycled Propaganda in DTLV“Divine Conflict”, 2020, 24×36″, Ink and Acrylic on Image of New York City. Sold in July of 2022 from audio/visual exhibition “Cognitive Distortion/s” at the Arts Factory DTLV“52 Stick Figures (At Night)”, 2014, 24×36″, House Paint on Found Wood Canvas, Sold in 2014 during my first painting exhibition, “W/OUND”, in the “Glorified Hallway”, with works painted to raise funds to record an EP of the same name. I would trade music for painting after this newfound language of art.“Untitled”, 2019, Inks & Oils on Canvas Board“Jennifer Aniston Tries Not To Ralph”, 2020, Ink Pen and Acrylics on Canvas, Available, Email for Inquiry“What Your Soul Looks Like”, 24×36″, 2022, Acrylics and Oil Pastels on Canvas, Sold“Entirely Made Up To Stay Busy (Featured Column)”, 2022, Sold“IT’S MY DOW & I WANT IT NOW!”, 2022, Ink Pen & Acrylic on loose canvas“Entourage Effect”, 2020, Acrylic and Ink on Canvas“Agitated House Wife Takes It Out On The Dog (More News at 11), 2022, Mixed Media, Sold
This project was funded in part by the Nevada Arts Council and National Endowment for the ArtsOriginal sketch/idea I had for the album artwork. I still enjoyed it so I made it available in print form.
Cover artwork for “SHADOW KILLER”, the soundtrack to an imaginary slasher flick, Fall 2024.
“SILVER DESERT” originally served as the backing track I played improvisational guitar over last Summer in Rhyolite, Nevada for the first iteration of my Nevada Arts Council project grant multimedia project, “In Relative Obscurity (2023)”.
The track consists of cello drones in the key of shifting sand dunes, which resonate in the key of C; which I found reflected the remote location it was captured from.
It was ultimately in conversation with the environment I recorded it in; Calico Basin, as part of my artist in residency experience with the Cube Gallery in 2022. The desert landscape had never struck me as something, or somewhere, worth interacting with; let alone using it almost directly as I can as a medium to create new works. I’m thankful I came upon Goldwell Open Air Museum and it’s sculptures/stories. I look forward to creating more works in dialogue with these subjects.
Field recordings always interested me, but capturing this recording of a cello in such a large, open studio was great. It really let the room lend itself to the overall sound of the final result.
The inclusion of “Silver Desert” in a Deathbed Tapes record label release is a huge win for me, and quite the milestone. I look forward to submitting my works to future opportunities and different record labels.
It was the year I finally worked out of a legitimate art studio and had 2 different Artist In Residency experiences. Residency experiences are essentially giving someone gallery space to work and/or display their work. For some, it’s an experiment in transition when it comes to the environment they paint in. For others, like me, it’s an experiment in having ANY environment to actually paint in; with your body and soul (as cheesy as that is).
Having a studio space awarded to me via an application process was a lesson in patience that proved essential when applying these types of opportunities. Each phase of the decision process would include me weeks of waiting in which I would look inwards towards my self and any possible motivations that I could identify that might not be what I consciously believed was happening.
After a few weeks of reflection & lack of space to paint in at home, it became clear to me I wanted a place outside of my home to create large format abstract expressionist artworks. The point in my life in which I became aware of this was objectively the opposite of a time in which I could afford or even get to an art gallery, let alone work daily on my creative practices in one. Realistically, it seemed a rather long term goal, which I was honestly comfortable with.
Painting it of course more that just the act itself, though. This is something that is hard to articulate through words. And thus, after this loose goal was made in my mind in January 2021, I kept living, unknowingly jumping head first into a year that would see me work out of 4 different studio spaces in both New Orleans Square & Arts Factory. I would either pay rent or be granted a month or so in which I could paint in a particular space. One of these would be Fremont Country Club, in which I would write the poem shown in the image at the top of this post
I wrote the poem while I was absolutely pulling my hair out trying to imagine what I should submit as my first public art proposal idea. My mind had originally gone towards sculpture as the best medium to explore for this opportunity to display “site-specific artwork for the Wetlands Park using recycled and earth-friendly materials” that would be essentially be made for the general public.
In the end I would scrawl this poem into four planks of wood that were screwed into a wooden canvas I had painted for it’s background. I was happy with it, and I was happy to have been successful in my application process as well as carrying it out, from beginning to end.
Here is where you can find all ten artists that participated in the 2022 public art project, “MIGRATE”.
The subtitle, Without An End In Mind, is taken directly from an essay I was commissioned to write for the UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum’s quarterly publication, Dry Heat Vol. 5 (aka “The Goldwell Issue”. I wrote about the first iteration of IRO and how I was inspired by Albert’s spirit of improvisation, in contrast to Executive Director, Suzanne Hackett-Morgan’s opening essay reflecting on the origins of the organization and her vision for it’s future.
The project is conceptually grounded in the legacy of the late Belgian artist Albert Szukalski. It serves as a contemporary dialogue with Szukalski’s methods, while also responding to the desert environment itself, where even the movement of sand produces remarkable ambient sonic textures. He remarked that the landscape of Nevada, specifically Rhyolite, reminded him of the holy lands depicted in the bible; making it the perfect backdrop for his Last Supper sculpture.
Filmed on October 19th, 2024, the morning of Goldwell’s 40th anniversary celebration, the work largely centers on a single static sunrise shot of the valley. The audio consists of an improvised electric guitar performance recorded with an amplifier and field recorder, capturing the violence of the high desert winds and the reverb of my guitar’s sound; both bouncing off of the barn’s metal tin roof.
“BOYTOY SUMMER” opened on First Friday, November 5th, 2022 at InsideStyle. It was my second solo exhibition of the year, and took place almost immediately after my apprenticeship with Deana Khoshaba.
The tongue in cheek/rather loaded title of the showing is a reference to my Artist In Residency experience withThe Cube LVthat Summer. Between painting between Laguna Beach, Calico Basin, then traveling to Europe for a “quick crash course in culture”. During that time, I attended the iconic Bienalle De Venezia 2022: The Milk Of Dreams, recorded guitar with my Tascam field recorder at Noisy Rooms Berlin and saw 3 nights of Chris Corsano’s legendary improvisational/jazz venue Cafe OTO. It was surreal to experience such vital locations in terms of “hubs” in the art world.
It was 3 months of my life on contract as an artist via a patron who has had an undoubtable impact on DTLV and it’s Arts District. He also gave me the chance to experience culture, first hand, therefore also giving me the ability to create with it in my mind from then on. For the rest of my life now, I can express myself from a perspective of having actually seen contemporary art in countries where I don’t even speak the language. It feels alien, yet refreshing.
I would often joke that I was not my patron’s “boy toy”, one occasion he even suggested I use that as the title for an artwork in the future. In the end, the name is something no one really asked about.
Late October of 2022 was such a proverbial sigh of relief for myself, as I locked down the gallery space to be used for my second solo exhibition to tie up the year. I had my entire collection from that ’21/’22 on display in a gallery on Main Street, where traffic slows to a crawl towards the Charleston blvd light, giving people no other option than to look through the tall windows with my large abstract paintings inside.
Myself posing with my work “Debt”, which is now in award winning actor Graham Sibley’s
It felt amazing having myself sprawled throughout the gallery space in the form of all my paintings. I remember a major insecurity/source of mild confusion for me was pricing the works and creating print material for the public to read, as there were so many paintings and I kept moving/switching them in and out, making it hard to put on paper. Much like my ideas and practices in my works, whatever the medium.
Early morning of opening day a Las Vegas Weekly photographer came to get pictures of me setting up my show after a feature interview I had with Geoff Carter about the exhibition and my journey to that point. Interior design firm, InsideStyle, is located in the heart of the Las Vegas arts district, right off of Main Street & Charleston Blvd. They have a beautiful office attached to a gorgeous gallery space with windows to the ceiling and beautiful, tall walls.
Marc and Jill Ableman gave me the incredibly validating experience of operating my own art gallery, in a beautiful store front, smack dab in the middle of downtown Las Vegas, directly across from a popular coffee shop; a great situation on Sunday mornings.
I had 3 weeks, and it was just phenomenal having the space as a gallery and a work space. It had plenty of room to be both and I believe the visitors that came by enjoyed seeing artists painting in real time & making a natural painting environment out of a showroom. The process of creating is a big focus in my work anyways, so it makes sense to emphasize that sentiment by actually painting in the gallery space during open hours.
The show got me 3 different interviews for press and introduced me to new collectors I’d had never met if it wasn’t for the Ableman’s patronage, which was provided to me when I needed it most; as a local artist and a human being. I think an “artist” is just an extreme/dramatic version of the latter, but regardless; they offered the resources they had to someone that had a vision/plan, and that’s all it takes for some serious magic to happen. At least in my (admittedly wild) experience.
I’m extremely grateful and glad I stumbled into such a grandiose platform for my art and self. A lot of people don’t have the time, resources, paintings, etc necessary to do this sort of thing on such short notice.
If my experience operating a fine abstract art gallery as a single man operation taught me anything it was that I should have delegated tasks more or hired outside help for marketing materials and advertising. It all happened so fast I feel like I barely had my head on straight for the First Friday opening night, haha.
Though again, a huge thanks to InsideStyle & the Ableman’s for their continuous support of the local arts scene and the people within it. It’s situations like this one that allow major steps forward for both individuals and the community at large. When you show them, by example, that these things are possible, it truly takes the conversation of “what happened to art in the arts district?” a big step forward & in the right direction. I look forward to seeing more examples of this in my community in years to come, as I know first hand how much small opportunities can motivate young or emerging artists to do significant things and contribute to the arts community with more knowledge and experience in their tool belt.
You can probably tell I had/have a thing for reds & flesh tones at this time in my life. Something about Cadmium Red paint smashed into canvas, against all encompassing matte black swathes of india ink really seemed to evoke the kind of action I was looking for in painting. One could interpret it many ways, but I know red to be very evocative and fiery in it’s essence, and that surely creeps its way into anyone’s interpretation. I also notice that I slowly begin to introduce more line work in my paintings, trying to sort of call forth any semblance of something figurative in my works, or perhaps toying with the concept of composition and mark making going hand in hand.
Artwork of Russian Painter & Art Theorist Wassily Kandinsky, 1913, “Obelisk”
I feel reading late Russian Painter and Art Theorist Wassily Kandinsky‘s book “Concerning The Spiritual In Art“ definitely inspired me in attempting to paint forms over pure abstraction/noise. Even with the “noise”, you can see me start to bend those portions and form vague gestural outlines with them, instead of just slapping muddy paint layers over eachother until I was done with whatever seemed to be bothering me at the time.
A main point of feedback I get from my works before 2022 was that my paintings were good and all, but they felt “too much”. They were violent scenes of colors blooming into each other, but in a way that’s anything but “living room material”. Interior designers would see my works and explain that I shouldn’t just hang raw canvas in such a gallery space, but I suppose that was my intention. I think deep down I was trying to break any and all rules that I could think of or even start making up. I wanted to rebel against traditional approaches to art exhibitions in Las Vegas, including sound art by ambient artists in each of my showings opening receptions so far.
I wasn’t reinventing the wheel by any means, but I was blissfully unaware of how I “should” be approaching the use of this gallery space, which lead me to do things that traditionally might not happen, inevitably leading to things happening that may not have happened otherwise.
Anyways, this is clearly just me rambling, but I appreciate if you stuck with me all throughout this blog post. I just wanted to put my thoughts down about this experience/exhibition so I can share the fact that it happened at all.
De oorlog is voorbij! (self-portrait on an Andy Warhol base) * zeefdruk * 82 x 71 cm * 1972 collectie Frank Heirman, Antwerpen
In 1972, founding artist of Goldwell Open Air MuseumAlbert Szukalski had a solo exhibition at the MultiArt Gallery of Liliane and Paul Ibou in Antwerp, Belgium. At the same time, Szukalski presented two different shows with two different invitations, one pop art, the other one conceptual. For ‘13 self-portraits on an Andy Warhol base’ Szukalski took a silk-screened self-portrait of Warhol and introduced his own self-portrait in it. He performed the result in thirteen different colours in Warhol’s way.
The second part of the exhibition ‘General view on culture (?)’, presented a series of thirteen square mirrors carrying comments such as “General view on culture” or “An innocent onlooker”. Szukalski ironically stated that, with his mirrors he had created both a utility object for the lady and an art object with a deeper thought for the gentleman…
General view on culture (?) * spiegels (details) * (x2) 100 x 100 x 13 cm * 1972 collectie Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke
With Adriaan Raemdonck’s gallery De Zwarte Panter in Antwerp, Szukalski established his longest and closest collaboration. The gallery dedicated four solo exhibitions to the artist in the seventies. In 1973 the exhibition ‘Bagage’ presented a series of assemblages of suitcases and a scaled-down version in bronze. Later in the same year, the exhibition ‘Safari’, in collaboration with the fur manufacturer Benoit, showed a series of large-scale collages made of fur. At the vernissage, Szukalski had a model dressed in a panther coat parade with a real panther. In 1975 with the exhibition ‘Perforaties’ Szukalski presented ready-made sculptures and objects in which he had drilled holes. In 1976, for the exhibition ‘Patate cosaque, patate sauvage’ Szukalski made a point of producing the most expens resulting in nine bronze potato sculptures.”– Excerpt from Szukalski, Eenvoudig dus moeilijk, Retrospective Biographical Publication by Verbeke Foundation
I love that we can see Albert go from, honestly, quite a focused though still humorous body of work in conversation with Andy Warhol‘s works at the time straight into De Zwarte Panter. It states his first show was named “Bagage” and it was literally suitcases and various other forms of literal baggage. I can appreciate Adriaan’sallowance of Albert’s forward thinking/improvisational approaches to exhibitions, as that is honestly how great things are done in art. Patronage alone is a vital part of creation, whether it’s by one’s self or an art collector; so Adriaan letting Albert come in and do his thing so seemingly carelessly reads as a refreshing take on “fringe” art practices happening at the time.
This is something Albert often considered in his works; the concept of the moment, intuition, situations. He was called “the situation-maker” by the Antwerp press, a name he proudly kept and one that seemed to fuel his works in the early 70’s, mostly at De Zwarte Panter. Brilliance can be beckoned by simply “letting go” or being mindfully free of any constraints; real or imagined. It can be more difficult than actually planning out ones moves / paintings, sculptures, etc.
I like to think Albert remembered that consistently throughout his years and subconsciously communicated it in his works.
