Ice River Temple of the Shrouded Sun – 20 x 16 oil on canvas
 
Let us, today, meet again
to discuss The Shrouded Sun.
Its light grows dim and its heat grows weak,
while Ice River slows down its run.
 
Our temple walls grow thick with frost.
Our elders believe that all is lost.
What should we do? We must do more.
Why won’t our sun shine as before?
 
Our emissaries to Ice Mountain
have long been gone and are likely dead.
Our children sicken and our women cry,
and our prayers and pleas have all been said.
 
Shrouded Sun, you let us die.
I, at the end, must wonder why.
​

Orange at Midnight During a Subconscious Storm      16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
A subconscious storm lurks in my mind
and works to wear me down.
The ocean churns, the lightning strikes
and ships are spun around.
 
But I relax and calmly sleep
under a cool blue moonlight,
because I know that I’ll be graced
to see the orange at midnight.

Warm Whisper – 20 x 30 acrylic on board 
Her sword was still despite the cold,
as she held it towards her crystal goal.
A sphere of glass concealed the warmth
that she hoped would grace her heart and soul.
 
A crystal apple in the sphere
held the passion that she sought
in an arctic world of ice
through which she valiantly had fought.
 
Warm whispers in her ear were soft
and her eyes were sparkling with delight.
To see the crystal apple’s shape
made her happy and hopeful for the night.

Space Fabric – 20 x 30 acrylic on board
 
A ribbon of time flows through her hands
as space offers its spheres for balance.
She grasps the frictionless fabric to join
an eternal ballet of romance.
 
She sees the distance, she feels the sky,
she touches the past and her future.
If the spheres should fall and her heart should tear,
she will use the ribbon for suture.

Fairy Bubbles – 30 x 40 acrylic on board 
I journeyed once to another star and roamed an exotic planet.
I spied a fairy near a lake that turned bubbles into granite.
From the lake, they slowly rose and floated to the sky
and when they did, they turned to stone right before my eye.
Now when I look into Earth’s sky, it makes me wonder double
and I ask a question of myself,
                                           “Was our moon once a fairy bubble?”

Tomorrow Evening – 16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
Tomorrow evening I will take a walk
 through tangled brush and rugged stone,
Until I find a secret path where I will venture on my own.
Like in a dream, I’ll walk in woods while searching for a mystery.
I’ll climb a hill shrouded by a night as dark as known in history,
and there I’ll find as I leave the trees, a future scene of wonder.
I’ll ask out loud with my delight:
                                                  “What world’s stars am I under?”
 
Today when I tell friends of this, they will criticize my reasoning.
Yet, I’ll keep my dream despite their words –
                                                      I can’t wait for tomorrow evening.
​

Love Leap 3000 A. D. – 30 x 24   oil on canvas       
​                                                                   
You dance with a smile and I soar through the air in ecstasy.
Earth bathes me in light and I glide to where you beckon me.
Star fire blazes and the rogue planet burns.
My heart beats with love, and my spirit returns.
I embrace you.
You hold me, too.
You give.
I live.
Joy!

Igneous Rhino and Fear under the Midnight Eye        20 x 16 oil on canvas
 
The midnight eye watches as people scurry about in fear.
Which way should they run?  Is it best to hide in the shadows?
And why has the igneous rhino chosen to appear at this moment?
Will it bring salvation or trample each person into human dust?
Run! Hide!  Before your paranoia catches you.  

Raven Rocks – 16 x 20 oil on canvas        
 
Are you an artist or mathematician, oh bird of mystery?
What revelations will you masterpiece provide? 
Does its abstractness portend good fortune?
Does it enumerate a future prize?

Raven Moon – 16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
Fly through the night, oh bird of mystery and frightening
intelligence.  Where do you wing and what is your mission?  
Pass over my house if you must, but please do not delay in your journey.
 

The Future Whispers – 36 x 40 oil on canvas
 
Yes.  I hear you o’ eternal future --
whispers of my lonely dreams.
Will we ever truly have a clean life of beauty,
one uncontaminated by shards
of hate, ugliness, and extremes?
 
Yes.  Soft whispers float lightly--
promises of mutual joy.
Please tell me we will truly live without anxiety,
without imbroglios, subterfuge,
and anarchists born to destroy.
 
​The architect’s art extends
its points to touch the sky.
My mind reaches with them, eager
to see what someday might be:
gifts to please and mystify.

Prairie Fire Birds
 
As grasses burn, the flames whip back and forth in the wind and daring birds fly through the tongues of inferno catching insects that are driven from safety.  Such a dangerous exciting sport it must be.
​

Flameflower – 18 x 24 oil on canvas
 
Seer my eyes while you blaze.
Caress the sky on summer days.
Feed gold finches and downy beaks,
and turn your head towards rays you seek.
Bow down at night when time to sleep.
In autumn, cry.  In winter, weep.

Celestial Man 3020 A.D. – 48 x 24 oil on canvas
 
Celestial Man you have reached the stars and the planets that they host.
You’ve surveyed the spheres and made new homes, but what really can you boast?
Magma seas and moons of gold illuminate your searching eyes,
but oceans clear --- devoid of life, have made you realize
that nothing in the cosmos grand can present to you the gifts of Earth.
Return home and start anew, embrace the world in bold rebirth.
​

Planet Catcher – 24 x 48 oil on canvas
 
Through science, one-by-one, we have intellectually caught each planet of the solar system.  By doing so, we have answered questions, inspired dreams, and indulged in art beyond what most of humanity ever hoped.  

Eon Stone – 16 x 20 oil on canvas    
 
Eon Stone, shudder not. In calm we praise your permanence. 
You rest above us and mock your perch, but risk your future eminence.
You boast your girth with great delight inspired by your dominance,
but often, strong ignore their fate while blinded by their prominence.
 
Ten granite tons are brushed by clouds and washed by night-rain scouring.
Yet, heat and cold spawn myriad cracks shown clearer after showering
You’ll stay above us for many years, basking in time you’re borrowing,
but we must weaken as we grow old and find gravity overpowering.

Exploring Celestia – 48 x 24 oil on canvas
 
Several decades of great excitement preceded our chance to first set-foot upon the planet Celestia.
     When we finally arrived, my co-astronaut, Craig Brennan, and I were thrilled by the layered rocky landscape, despite our difficulty in traversing its ruggedness.
      Our instruments soon detected microbial life, but anything larger was unapparent.  Large structures that stood before us were textured as some prickly plants might be, but Craig speculated that their form was likely a product of mineral crystal formation.
     Details of our expedition will be published upon our return to Earth.
​

Twisted Crabapple Tree
 
 
The twisted crabapple tree’s branches hold a cloud of blossoms to the purple sky while the wind draws circles in the golden meadow grass.
It draws me to its shade so that my hair might toss to and fro, and so that my mind might commune with my myriad ancestors who have reveled in the same grace of nature.

Twisted Peach Tree – 20 x 16 oil on canvas
 
The graceful twisted peach tree’s feminine branches hold her leaves toward the sun on their fingertips.  The leaves dance with joy because their plump perfect fruit has blushed with autumnal readiness.

​Twisted Raven Tree – 20 x 16 oil on canvas
 
As if trying to capture the sky, the twisted raven tree winds its branches ‘round and ‘round through blue and white.  The north meadow’s guardian raven poses stoically to observe the process.  Perhaps another century will reveal the tree’s power.
 

Ellsie’s Nightmare – 16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
Down the hall of distant room,
through the dark of thickest gloom,
I heard a mortal scream of terror.
It was poor Ellsie in deep nightmare.
 
She screamed for me to rescue her.
She cried of teeth and creature fur.
I couldn’t answer her sad appeal
for I was asleep and her fate was real.

The Man – 16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
Who is the man who lurks by himself on the corner without a light?
The suspicious man with a heavy brow who seems not to mind the night.
He gives no reply to brief ‘hello’s’ and shows no discernable sign of fear.
He turns his back to passers-by with a shrug that is cavalier.
Is he an apex predator, a master of all surveyed?
Or is he a sad and lonely soul who is hiding from empty days?

Iowa Impressions/ Spring Glory -20 x 16   oil on canvas                                                                          
A series of impressionistic paintings of Iowa scenery starts with this Monet-inspired scene of a woman enjoying the pleasures of spring as she sits in a spacious meadow of grass. 
 
Monet painted in soft pastel colors that emphasized the brightness of daylight.  He avoided the use of black in his paintings, because he felt it was not found in nature.  Apparently, he had never visited Iowa, where the freshly turned earth can be as black as the feathers of a crow and sometimes even reflect the purple iridescence of a crow’s feathers.

Iowa Impressions/ Saylorville Lake Party Cove   24 x 12 oil on canvas                                                                          A series of impressionistic paintings of Iowa scenery continues with this Monet-inspired scene of a sunny beach near a cove of the lake where boats like to congregate.
 

Iowa Impressions – Saylorville Reservoir Sand Cliffs        16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
One-by-one, ill fated oak trees succumb to the erosion of Saylorville Reservoir’s sand cliffs.  The process creates some dramatic scenery, and a nice walking beach results from the erosion.  

Iowa Impressions - Ventura Marsh      24 x 48 oil on canvas
  
Usually when I paint impressionistic pieces, I try to emulate Pierre Auguste Renoir’s colors, technique, and ambience.  He painted a variety of park scenes, often with visitors languidly enjoying the beauty and atmosphere of the moment similar to Ventura Marsh.  In this painting, I have done the same with two people who are viewing the beautiful scene that can be found at the west end of Clear Lake, Iowa’s lake.  There lies a park that runs along the shallow end of the lake comprising The Ventura Marsh Wildlife Management Area.

Iowa Impressions/Lakeview Park – 16 x 20 oil on canvas
 
Lakeview Park is located a couple of blacks from my house in Urbandale, Iowa.  I have walked around it with my wife many times throughout the four seasons.  It is beautiful during any time of year, but of course, fall often provides the most impressive scenes when tree leaves are bright.
     The pond is lined with large white stones that accent the various colors of nature. Many people fish its waters and there is even a small patch of prairie flowers at the west end. 
​

White Rock     22x28 oil on canvas
​​I stood in the road by a large white rock, and wondered how its tonnage came to sit where it sat.  I looked around and there was no other such rock marking the flat land.  The susurration of the breeze informed me of the passage of time, and I felt it steadily weave through my body.  The soft wheat turned yellow, the golden leaves blew pass my feet, and the land became white, yet I stood by the rock and wondered.  Eventually, the sky became dark and I decided to sleep, confident the white rock would remain and mark my passing.  

Iowa Impressions/Park Paradise  – 40 x 30 oil on canvas
 
There is no denying that Iowa’s vast prairie land has been largely plowed under for crops of corn and soybeans, yet there remain amongst its many rolling hills and meandering streams, beautiful parks and meadows through which a person may stroll and enjoy the richness of life. 
 
In this scene, a young woman enjoys a spring day of bright colors and flower aromas.  A willow weeps, crabapple trees blossom, and a stone bridge awaits her foot sounds.  
​

Iowa Impressions/Twilight Tree ISU  – 24x48 oil on canvas
 
There is no greater place to find a variety of healthy species of trees than a university campus.  Iowa State University campus is a prime example.  A tree much like the one depicted in this painting is on the north edge of ISU’s central campus.  Much artist’s license has been taken with the tree, especially with its height, but its form is impressionistically expressed as one might see it on a darkening evening.  Two students socialize under the tree and the full moon, thus continuing a century-old activity of humanity.  
​

Iowa Impressions: Snow Pony – 24 x 12 oil on canvas
 
Large animals such a ponies seem to be indifferent to the snow.  In fact, they seem to revel in it.
Here is s simple depiction of a pony enjoying nature.

​

Noon – Rest from Work
(after Millet, after van Gogh) - 22 x 28 oil on canvas
 
In 1866 Jean-Francois Millet painted two peasant people resting near a pile of wheat in realism style.  He called it Noonday Rest.  In 1890 Vincent van Gogh essentially traced the painting, reversed the image and painted the scene impressionistically.  He called his Noon – Rest from Work (after Millet).  Now I have painted a similar scene as van Gogh’s, but with the people posing differently.  I call it Noonday Rest (after Millet, after van Gogh).
 
 

Water Nymphs of Foloi Forest - 24 x 48 oil on canvas
​
 
If you ever travel to an old inn secreted on the edge of the beautiful Foloi Forest, you will hear murmured tales from ancient lore.  The few who have traveled deep into the reaches of the forest have spoken of trees ablaze with magic, water and woodland nymphs, and other mystical creatures that still live quietly among the oaks and wildflowers. 
Sojourners of the inn tell stories of people entering and hiking along the narrow paths for a few days, only to return to their home villages to find that several months or years have passed.  Was time truly slowed for these people, or had they escaped their routine lives and responsibilities and used tales of magical nymphs as an excuse for their absence?
The bartender of the inn claims that his son entered the forest for but a single day, and returned with ears of a donkey.  Bar patrons scoff and say that the boy always had looked like a donkey.
 Others will laugh and say that those who live in the forest are merely reclusive humans with no magical powers.
The only way to know which version of the tales is true, is to explore Foloi Forest oneself

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The Explorer's Captain's Logs

The following paintings were created with no initial relationship to each other, but they have been united in a small story delineating a ship captain's journey.

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