Oil on wood panel, 10 3/4 x 18 3/4, December 2021

This is an old family photo, I don’t know who the kid is or whose dog it is, but the pic inspired me to paint this. Some Finnlander relative up in the U.P. of Michigan, just starting out….eighteen months old, the back of the pic said. Probably from the 1930’s.

Oil on wood panel 24 x 15 November 2021

This is a painting from a black and white family photo. It depicts my Grandpa, Toivo Koykka, my mom Ruth, my Grandma Tillie, Toivo’s sister-in-law Esther, nephew Harold, and Toivo’s brother Charley.

I’ve been influenced by the great illustrator Bernie Fuchs and it’s influencing the look I want in my paintings.

Approx. 37x24,  acrylic on masonite. 2004

This is from a family photo of my father - Staff Sergeant Arnold F. Maki Sr. at the end of World War ll in 1945.  He was with the 913th Field Artillery unit,  88th Division,  5th Army,  that went from Casablanca,  North Africa all the way through Italy to the Italian Alps and the Brenner Pass,  almost a full year in combat.  

Before that, while he was still in the States, he was with the 9th Division temporarily in 1942 for training in North Carolina. Then he was in Oklahoma in 1943 as part of the cadre of officers and NCO’s who were the key men who established and trained the new 88th Division.

In later life he worked for Chrysler Defense Engineering and General Dynamics.  He helped build prototypes for both companies such as the Redstone Missile, The Chrysler Turbine Car,  the plane to terminal transport machines at Dulles Airport, and the M1 Abrams Tank, among many others.

The second pic here is a memory box I made from his WWII things.  it hangs on the wall in my library.

Oil on linen, mounted on wood panel, 18 x 24, 2021

This is from a black and white family photo taken in 1940.

Left to right—My Mom, then Ruth Helen Koyyka when she was about 17 years old. My Grandpa, Toivo John Koykka, about 42 years old, and my Grandma, Tillie Emily Koykka, about 38 years old. The car is a 1939 Willy’s sedan. This was just north of the Tapiola Diner, which at that time was the Co-op store , I believe.

16x20.  Oil on canvas board.    2017

This is from an old family photo of my Mom and a friend about 1940 when she would have been  18 years old.  The location is somewhere in the U.P. of Michigan, I'm not sure where, probably in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

14x11.  Oil on canvas panel.   2014

A nice Tonalist painting.

Oil on wood panel, 16 1/2 x 12 3/4, January 2022

This from an old black and white family photo. I believe it’s the first photo taken of my great grandfather’s family when they arrived in the U.S. from Oulu Finland about 1905. Pictured left to right: My great grandfather, Oskar Koykka, Charlie Koykka (on lap), Onni Koykka (in back), My grandfather Toivo Koykka, about 7 years old, and my great grandmother, Sanna Koykka.

9x12.  Oil on Raymar panel.    2013

This is the original small sketch for "The Lovely Brightness of Winter." My wife and I and our son Jeff had stopped in here for a drink on my birthday, November 27, after seeing a Toulouse Lautrec exhibit at the Flint Institute of Art - which was wonderful !  I loved the ambience in this place with a soft autumn light coming through the windows and making the creamy yellow walls glow.  (It was originally an old church, in downtown Clarkston).

20x16. Oil on canvas board. 2014 ?

From a live model, the man had an Indian headress he acquired from an Indian in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The second painting was done the same day 12x12

48 x 31 Mixed media, (oil, metal plates, copper corners) canvas panel paintings mounted on birch panel May 2019

This painting is an homage to my ancestors. Finn-Swedes who have been in this country since about 1900. They came here with nothing except self-confidence, resourcefulness, and hard work. They knew that it’s the little things in life that really are important. They had open eyes. I recently saw the movie Vanilla Skies with Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz, and I realized my paintings have mostly vanilla skies! I loved the philosophy in the movie. Ya gotta see it. Really, psychologically deep! See the second photo for the writing on the copper plate.

24x18.  Acrylic on canvas board.  2010

This is from a family black and white photo.  It pictures my mother Ruth Helen Koykka at approx. 2 years old with her parents Tillie and Toivo.  They lived in Michigan's U.P. on a farm in Elo Mi.  But I believe this pic was taken either in Detroit, or across the bridge in Windsor, Ontario Canada.

16x20 Oil on canvas board. 2014

Oil on linen, mounted on wood panel 19 x 24, 2021

This is from a black and white family photo taken in the summer of 1956 at my cousin Clarence Koykka’s Phillip 66 gas station in Elo Michigan. The car is a 1951 Chevy. Left to right— My Mom, Ruth Helen (Koykka) Maki, older brother Arnie (Freddie) sitting on hood, brother Jerry below him, brother Donnie on hood. My Dad, Arnold Frederick Maki Sr., and me, Ron Maki.

27 x27 Oil on birch panel 2017

This is one of my favorite paintings. The subject is the artist Teresa Oaxaca. She is an amazing artist, her drawings are superb. (Pretty much all of my earliest work is pencil drawings, so I have enormous respect for artists that draw extremely well). And her paintings have a quirkiness to them that I love. On top of that she has her own unique style of dressing in clothes from a hundred years ago! All this talent in such a young person! I believe she’s only 31, check out her paintings and drawings on Google if you get a chance.

I saw a photo of her in this pose and had to make it the subject of a painting. In most of my latest work I paint people. What I am looking for in these paintings are unique poses — How people stand or sit when no one is looking and they are completely themselves.

The painting in the background is a painting in my own collection. I painted it initially in plein-air at Cranbrook. Then I made it into a studio painting with many changes. It’s titled, “The Artist in Red, (Cranbrook Oriental Garden).” The other figure sitting in the chair is an amalgamation of various sitting poses that I’ve seen.

Private collection:  Beverly Hills, Michigan

22 1/2 x 28. Oil and Gold Leaf on birch panel, 2018

This is a painting with about seven different sources that inspired me. The original photo that I took is from a bar/restaurant near New Pfaltz New York, near the Hudson River. I've included 3 photos of my painting to show how it changes when light hits them at different angles. It astounds me how much they change! Also included is my original pencil sketch for this piece.

Oil on Linen, mounted on panel 11 x 16, 2021

This is from a black and white family photo. Left to right, Me (Ron Maki) in my Dad Arnold Maki’s lap. Donnie in my Mom Ruth’s lap, Jerry, and Freddie sitting on the arm of the couch. I changed the background to a buttery yellow a few months later. See second pic for old image.

Oil on linen, mounted on wood panel, 21 x21

This is a portrait of me, my son Jeff, and wife Kaye about 1989.

The image is from a black and white photo I put on our Christmas card that year.

12x12. Oil on canvas panel.    2016

This was a very quick painting, probably didn't even take 1/2 hour.  The idea came from a 2x2 inch sketch in my sketchbook.   See pic 2.  I'm always looking for interesting poses and this one fit the bill.

18x24, Oil on canvas board, 2018

This is from a family black and white photograph taken about 1946 at the end of WW II. This picture is a real treasure to me because it captures the essence of my Grandfather, Toivo Koykka, before I was born.

Elo, Michigan was a very small rural town in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.P. of Michigan. It was surrounded by small 40 acre farms, mostly with families of Finnish descent. Every little bit of this painting brings back great memories to me.

Toivo was an amazing character - he drove a team of horses for a logging camp when he was 13 years old (1911). He was a farmer, a copper miner, a woodsman, a logger, a carpenter, a craftsman and a dead-nuts shot with a rifle or pistol. An old friend of his once told me that you always knew where Toivo was in the mine because he was loudly singing in Finnish. Also he was one of the few guys down in the mines that they could count on not to puke when someone had to come and scrape the remains of any miner into a pillowcase who was unlucky enough to be caught in a cave-in and be smashed flat. It was a very dangerous time to be a miner when the owners only cared about profit. (Not allowing enough time to shore up the mines with timbers). The smart miners only worked down there long enough to get enough money to buy forty acres, a cow and a few chickens.

11x14. Oil on canvas board , 2018

This is from a family black and white photo of my Mom, Ruth Helen Koykka and her first cousin, Harold Koykka. Taken in 1939 in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the U.P. It’s not quite done yet, but almost. My Mom would have been 16 in this photo.

20x16 oil on canvas board. 2013?  Handmade frame by Ron Maki

This is from a family photograph (black and white) that I just loved.  Sitting on a haystack in Elo Michigan, on their family's farm are my Grandmother Tillie Kuopus and her older sister Hilma, probably when they were about 17 years old.  They were two of my favorite people in the world, along with their husbands Toivo and Gus.

There are 3 versions of this painting.  One I sold, Maybe in 2014 (present whereabouts unknown.)  Approx. the same size and colors.

The third painting is actually the first one I did in 2005, in sepia acrylic, size approx. 33x24

Sisters, Tillie and Hilma, circa 1919, Version 1.    Approx. 33x24 acrylic on masonite. Painted in 2005.

This is from an old family photo, circa 1919.  They are sitting on a haystack on the family farm in Elo Michigan, right in the middle of the Keweenaw Peninsula, in Michigan's U.P.    Pictured are my Grandmother Tillie Kuopus and her older sister Hilma, when they were about 17. They were two of my favorite people in the world, along with their husbands Toivo Koykka and Gus Linja.

9x12. Oil on canvas board.  This painting won the BBAC Education Award in a 2013 show at the BBAC.

 This is another painting from an old black and white family photo.  This is my Dad, Arnold F. Maki Sr. and my Mom, Ruth Helen Maki in Detroit around 1948.  Probably the first year of their move from the U.P. down to Detroit. Presently in the collection of my sister Janet in Hermansville Michigan.

Version 1 of this painting was sold, maybe in 2012?  Whereabouts unknown.

three paintings still in process, about music, one in top right is a portrait of my wife and son and me in 1989

23x36.   also a smaller one 12×20 both are  Oil on birch panel.    2016.  Frame made by Ron Maki

This painting is from a photograph I have of friends and I in our dirt biking days. We rode from the early seventies to the mid-eighties - dirt bikes and street bikes.  During that time period I owned at least 10  different motorcycles at different times.  We all ended up eventually selling our bikes -- riding a motorcycle is a very dangerous endeavor.  We all "crashed and burned" at some point, or rather, -- many points!  The most memorable was up near Black Lake MI - we were riding in a misty rain and lots of mud - having a blast, when Mo's bike, going about 20 miles an hour,  went through a puddle of water that was really a hole.  His front end went straight down into the hole, and the bike stopped dead-- he flew over the handlebars doing a complete back flip, feet straight up in the air, and landed on his feet!!!  Totally amazing and awesome.        (See the category "Cool Stuff" for a lot more about the motorcycles I had.)

Pictured are Bill, Bruce, Mo, John, Me, Dennis, and Carl.  There is also a smaller sketch of this painting, quite similar  12 3/4 by 20, oil on canvas panel. That one is owned by my good friend since grade school, Bill Gross. (The guy with the cowboy hat).

9x12. Oil on canvas board  2011

This represents Idea development for a larger painting

20x16, oil on canvas board.   2015?

A painting inspired by a trip to NYC.  We were leaving the Arcadia Gallery in Soho and walked north a bit and found this really cool bar at 203 Spring St. called the Soho Room.  We stopped in there for a very good and reasonably priced lunch.  The second pic I took with my camera and it eventually became this painting.  Our table was in the perfect spot, the person by the door in the striped shirt, (you can only see her arm, on the left side of the door), is my wife Kaye.  We basically had open windows on three sides of us. On a gorgeous NYC day!

Berthe Morisot

16 ×12 oil on canvas board 2012

This is my favorite Manet painting. I saw the original at the Toledo Museum of Art. I had to make a copy. It was on loan from Paris. It’s and interesting story— she was a great impressionist painter herself and was Mane't’s model and , some say, girlfriend, but she later married his brother! The second painting is the original. I can’t decide if I like mine or his better !

27x27. Oil on birch panel. 2015

Used as the poster image for the BBAC 2016 student works show.  This painting originally started out as a small plein air painting at Cranbrook Oriental Garden.  I kept changing it in the studio and eventually made this larger version, which also went through many changes and repainting --- and I love the result.

Also shown at the Troy Design Center 2017.

Collection of the artist

21 x27 Oil on Birch Panel, September 2019

This is an image of the farm next to my Grandfather’s (Toivo Koykka) farm in Elo Michigan. Sam Maki sold it to my Father, Arnold Maki about 1947. My Dad sold it to Keith Maki about 2005. And later it sold again. When I was a kid it was a magical place. It was abandoned and my brothers and I used to play in there a lot. It also had an apple orchard of Transparent Apples which make the best apple pies ever — made by my Grandma Tillie Koykka. It also had huge bee’s nests and hornets nests. We messed with the hornets and they messed with us, nuff’ said!

The image is of my Grandfather looking across his 40 acres at the old farm. It is an image from my memories and my imagination.

It’s painted in a Van Gogh style. He’s one of my favorite painters.

oil on panel

Private collection:  Bloomfield Hills Michigan

16x16.  Oil and gold leaf on birch panel. 2017. Frame made by Ron Maki

My second gold leaf painting. I saw this image of the girl with a hand over her face and thought it was a wonderful image.  Pondering how to use it in a painting I came up with Hope Grace Joy, Version 2.   (Version 1 is the 3 cats, see that painting in the category Pets and Animals).   To me those three words conjure up a lot of emotion and contemplation on the human condition.  I wanted the painting to do the same.  And like all my paintings, the interpretation is up to the individual viewer.  Enjoy and contemplate!  I have two pics of it here to show how this picture changes in varying light conditions.  Plus I have a pic of it framed.  I made this frame from scratch with birch panel and wood trim and gold paint. (Private collection Troy Mi)

20x16. Oil on canvas board.   2005

That's me on the right with my brothers, Freddie and Jerry.  The perch were from Otter Lake back in the days when they were plentiful. The image is from an old family photo.

oil on canvas panel. 9x12

Private collection, Wolverine Lake Michigan

16x20. Acrylic on canvas board.  2007

An early painting of mine depicting my first car.  A used 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500 given to me on my graduation from high school by my Grandfather Toivo Koyyka.  I painted the name and flag on it about 1972 or so.  I had lots of adventures in this car, running on Woodward Ave. with friends, working and cruising through McDonalds, etc.etc.  (By the way, the McDonalds sign in this painting is the exact same one in the Henry Ford Museum, it's from McDonalds in Madison Heights on John R., south of 12 Mile Rd.)  The police did not like this car, this was the end of the hippie era, and I was a hippie.  In the six months I had the car painted like this I got tickets amounting to 18 points and lost my license for one month.  The cops pulled me over for anything!  It got to where if I even saw a cop looking at me, I pulled over.  All kinds of trumped up charges.  I finally got a brain in my head and painted over the name and painted the flag black.  I did not get a single ticket for the next 32 years.  And I drove exactly the same.  Needless to say I lost a lot of respect for the police.  They had no sense of aesthetics and creativity!  And no sense of humor!        (See the category "Cool Stuff" for stories about other vehicles I owned and worked on.) Private collection, Philadelphia

Oil on Linen Panel, 14 x 11 , September 2021

A painting from an old black and white family photo. My three brothers and I in front of my Grandma’s sauna. Donnie, Jerry, Me, Freddie.

9 x 12, oil on canvas board

11x14.  Oil on raymar board?      2015?

There are 4 versions of this painting, all the same size, except one version has the name "The Half King" on the restaurant.  They are from an original photo I took in the middle of Manhattan when my son Jeff, and my wife Kaye, and I went here for dinner.  I was standing in the middle of the road when I took this.  

One version, (without the name) is in a private collection in Wolverine Lake Mi.  I have the other three, somewhere.

27 x 27 Oil on birch panel January 2019

An unfinished painting , maybe it is finished...

Lady Golfers

8 × 10 Oil on canvas mounted on wood. This is from a sketch I made in Mesa Arizona. The condo we were staying at was right at the third hole. We saw a lot of golfers go through here in 9 days , and a lot of them seemed to be hackers and whackers ( I called them! ) but these two ladies were REAL GOOD!

16x16. Oil on canvas board.  2016

This was a rework of an older painting and when I was done I realized it reminded me of my son Jeff and his fiancé Claire.  I presented it to them as a gift in 2017 for their new co-op apartment in Brooklyn.

Private collection:  Brooklyn New York

16x20  oil on canvas (not mounted).    2015

This was painted from a costumed live model (Janet) and a fake monkey.  I painted her twice on the same canvas from two different poses she did that day.

Oil on Linen, mounted on wood panel, 19 x 24, repainted on an older painting 2021

I just had to redo this painting, wasn’t happy with it. It’s a little better I think. The second painting here is the one I painted over.

27x27.  Oil on birch panel.     2017

There is not a photograph of my Dad, my brothers, and I together in one place as adults at the same time. So I created this painting.  My two sisters were 10 years younger than us boys so I included them in the painting on the wall with our mother.

Left to right, front to back;  Gerald, Arnold Sr.,  Donald,  Arnold Jr.  Ronald,  Jane,  Ruth,  Janet.

14x11 oil on canvas board

Image from an old family photograph - the artist's  mother - top left.

Private collection:  Bloomfield Hills Michigan

Got Coffee… 18×14 Acrylic on canvas panel (After Liepke ) 2007

16x20.  Oil on canvas board.    Frame made by Ron Maki.   2017

This is a painting, design and form, that came mostly out of my imagination.  It was inspired by Degas. Private collection, Philadelphia

I Will Remember You….

Oil on wood panel 18 x 24 October 2021

This is a painting from my imagination about me and my three brothers, Arnie ( Freddie ), Jerry, and Donnie. The location is in the UP at Grandpa Koykka’s farm in Elo Michigan.

16x12. Oil on canvas board.      2014.  Frame made by Ron Maki

This is a painting of my wife from a photo taken years ago when she was a bridesmaid at a cousin's wedding.  One of my nicknames for her is Kitra,  and our last name in Finnish means "hill."  Also the Kanji symbol inside the circle on my artist signature means "hill."  I am also a fan of the old religious icon paintings with gold leaf.  Thus. St. Kitra of the Hills.

Oil on wood panel, 13x 18, Fall 2021

This is from an old black and white family photo. It depicts my Mom’s first cousins, the Kuopus kids. My Mom might be one of the girls on the hood I’m not sure. I originally did this image as a pencil drawing in 1988 and entered it in the Postal Life Magazine’s calendar contest for 1989. It won and was put in as the July image. I worked as a Postal clerk and Mail Processing Equipment Tech for 38 years.

20.5 X 20.5 inches, Oil on Linen, Mounted on Birch Panel, November 2019

I was experimenting with color in this painting using the CMY color wheel as opposed to the RGB color wheel. The RGB is the standard red, green, blue wheel that works best with pigment. The CMY wheel is cyan, magenta, yellow wheel that is used for blending light, not pigment. The theory is fairly complicated, but simply put, the CMY wheel is how your retina in your eye sees color. If you are a competent CMY “painter” then the colors will be more pleasing to your consciousness.

John Mellencamp is one of my favorite musicians and I just love the song “Cherry Bomb".” I love the video of it because of his violinist. My painting doesn’t represent her physically, but I believe it does emotionally.

16x20.  Oil on canvas board.    2014

This painting was inspired by a trip my wife and I took to the wonderful ghost town of Jerome Arizona.  We had drinks at the Jerome Grand Hotel which was built as a hospital in the 1930's.  It closed in 1950 and was empty for 44 years.  It became a hotel in 1994. What a view from these windows!

 I took a selfie there and decided to make a painting.  How the "housecat" got in the painting, I'm not quite sure.   They say the place is one of the most haunted places in America...

36 x 36 Oil on birch panel,  2016?

This painting is an homage to my Scandinavian ancestors (Finns and Swedes).  All the images and words have great meaning to me.

The second painting is an original sketch for the Viking ship,  16x16, oil on canvas panel.  Presented to my nephew Garrett as a gift.  A very intelligent young man who has inherited the Viking curiosity.

The first poem is one I wrote while pondering dreams and ancestors.

The second poem is by C.P.Cavafy, which one of my art instructors (Olga Constantine) at Wayne State University in Detroit  gave to all her students. It's especially appropriate for young artists setting out in life. My favorite lines are:  "Many be the summer mornings - When with what pleasure, with what delight - You enter harbors never seen before..."

The next image and short poem is representative  of the Zen mindset to me.  Misty cloudy, foggy, mystical landscape --which I love -- and a short Chinese poem:  "I asked the boy beneath the pines -- He said, 'The Master's gone alone -- Herb picking somewhere on the mount -- Cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown'."  Poetry doesn't get any better than that!   It's by Chia Tao (777-841).    

The last image is of a larger painting that I did years ago called "Remembering" --since I was a child I've always had this feeling of lost connection, that somehow when you are born as a human you slowly begin to forget something extremely important.  It's hard to explain, but I guess that's why I call myself "An Independent Researcher Into Realms of Consciousness."  I've always been looking for that connection.

The Kiss 16×20 Oil on canvas panel May 2010

Private collection Empire, Michigan

Oil on canvas panel, 2015

This was painted in the studio at the BBAC from a live model.

Presented to Rachel as a gift as she began her college education at the SAIC, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  

16x20 oil on canvas board. 2007

Collection: the artist

18x24.   Oil on canvas board.   2017

This painting is an homage to two of my favorite artists - Jean-Michel Basquiat and J.C Leyendecker.   Both of them had their personal battles. Basquiat died of a drug overdose at age 27.  Leyendecker lived to an old age but kept his private life private.  He was a gay man in an age, (the early twentieth century), when it was impossible to live such a life openly.  They both created the most wonderful art! Private collection, Franklin MI

11x14. Oil on canvas board.   2016.  Frame by Ron Maki

This painting came from my imagination and a phrase I saw on a building in Santa Fe NM.  "Nuevo Suenos y Milagros". ( New dreams and miracles). ( Private collection , Royal Oak MI )

Oil on canvas board.   10x16.  2008

A portrait of my son Jeff when he was 6 or 7, with his dog Buster (A Bichon Frise).

Private collection:  Jeff Maki.  Brooklyn NY

Belle Isle, 28x14 Acrylic and gold leaf on birch panel. Dec. 2018

This is a poster-style painting I did for my son Jeff and his wife Claire who were married at the old Boat House on Belle Isle in Detroit on May 12, 2018.

It is a wonderful place for a wedding, it’s in the process of being restored to it’s original appearance. It has an amazing interior with wonderful woodwork, staircases and rooms done in an age when great wood and great craftsmen were plentiful. It was a superb wedding and reception!

This painting was a Christmas present to them Christmas 2018.

Also there is another copy of this….my original acrylic sketch, approx. 12x8.

27x27. oil on birch panel

Won First Prize BBAC -January show, 2015

Private collection:  Franklin, Michigan

8x10.   Oil on canvas board.     2015 (?)

This is a painting from a photo of me and two of my best friends - (more like brothers really) - Bill, and Carl, and Carl's dog Lucy (A great fishing dog!).   The location is Elo Michigan on my property there. The little RV trailer behind us is one that I restored the year after I retired. (See story in Cool Stuff).  We've been going on dirt bike trips and fishing trips together forever.  Bill and I have known each other since grade school.  And I've known Carl since about 1970.  Both guys have great skills with making and building things themselves.  I think between the three of us we could build, repair or create anything. 

Private collection:  Rochester, Michigan

11x14 ?  Oil on canvas board.

The painting on the wall is by one of my favorite artists, Robert Henri.

Private collection:  Royal Oak MI

25 1/2 x 40.  Oil on birch panel.  2015

This painting is a concept painting about color and form.  Meaning that the shapes and forms, and the colors are what this painting is about. For example, the big flowing orange shape that encompasses all the dresses is one form.  Also the blue shape that surrounds the pics on the walls and continues as negative spaces between the dancers and their arms and bodies etc. ( Private collection, Empire MI )

The second painting is the original color sketch for the large painting.  16 x 11 ? Oil on canvas panel.  It was presented as a gift to my lovely niece Bella who is also a dancer.

20x16.  Oil on canvas panel.    2015

This is from a real tin type that my wife and I had taken in the 1970's.  I always liked this image.

Painted from a live model, Josie Herman at the BBAC. Private collection, Lake Orion MI

24x18. Oil on birch panel. May 2018

This is a painting I’m currently working on, I’d say it’s about half done.

I love painting people in cool poses and this qualifies. I’m thinking of making the 2 people on the right, into my wife and I. I have a photo of us when we were younger that is similar to this pose and she had a pink dress on in that pic. I always liked that photo. It was part of the inspiration for this painting.

16x20?    Oil on canvas board.  2014?  Private collection:  Rochester Hills Michigan

This painting was inspired by a trip to the Detroit Institute of Art.  I was very interested in the people watching a video artwork by Marina Abramovic, who's a well known performance artist in NYC.  The work was called "In the Kitchen 5, Carrying the Milk."  It was an endless loop of a woman (Marina?) standing in one spot not trying to spill a bowl of milk filled to the rim.  The only movement was in her hands which were slightly shaking.  It was like the observers were waiting to see if she spilt the milk -- she did not.  All this in a darkened room.  Very unique.

20x16.    Oil on canvas panel.     2017

20x16.  Acrylic on canvas panel.     2007

An early self portrait with our two cats, Sugar and Spice.

20x16   Oil on canvas panel.   2013

16x20.  Oil on canvas panel.   2011

This is a painting of my wife Kaye with our two cats when they were still kittens