Hawaii #6 “Spanish Dancer”

A year ago I was freediving in Kapalua Bay and I came across a spanish dancer. They are crazy nudibranch that looos loke a dancers dress when they swim. I spent an hour following it, just watching and enjoying my time. 

So I painted this...

It was really fun to paint, and it just became as I worked on it. I had no plan, and I didn’t realize that it was the moments I spent with the Spanish Dancer until it was nearly complete. 

Mahalo for checkong me out...

...more to come soon. 

Hawaii #5 “Valley of the Ghost Hand Puppet”

I was finally able to finish a painting. The last seven months have been very busy tattooing. 

It is called Hawaii #5 “Valley of the Ghost Hand Puppet”

I had a really good time painting this. It reminds me of snorkeling, floating in the water, peering down beneath rocks and reef, and periodically looking at the mountains reaching deeply into valley. There’s more to it than that but this painting was simply fun. At one point I felt like the painting itself had failed and I had to rescue it from itself. 

I have been so crazy busy doing tattoos at the shop that I’ve just had no time to really finish this piece. Which I believe was good because it gave me time to contemplate how I was going to rescue this painting. 

Below are a couple photos of the stages sometimes I post those sometimes I don’t. 











This was really fun and I’m glad to have completed my fith painting in the series. I am not sure how many of these I have inside me until the series is complete but I will make the attempt to just keep her going. 

2018 was the best year of my life, and i am looking forward to producing more work in 2019 as time allows. 

 Mahalo

Hawaii #4 “Blue Moon over Ukumehame”

Hawaii #4  “Blue Moon over Ukumehame”

Oil on linen. 

This is an abstraction of my time surfing at 1000 peaks. 

This was a enjoyable to paint, and surfing is wonderful. 

Aloha...

Hawaii #3 “Dissonant contrasting organic forms”

Hawaii #3 “Dissonant contrasting organic forms”

New painting finished finally. This was just fun to go all out with what is strange. 

Hawaii #2 "To Slide"

I have completed my second study here on Maui; it is simple.

New work Hawaii #1 "Between Interruptions"

I have been living in Maui Hawaii for 5 years now.  The majority of my time has been spent tattooing, spearfishing, surfing, and enjoying my life with Athena. and our dogs. 

This winter I started a new oil paining.  Nothing too serious, I simply had an idea to work out.  I worked on the painting when I was not tattooing; which is mostly never being that I have been almost booked solid for a few years now.

My life here on Maui is so very different then what it was in Minneapolis.  I have found that the ocean is everything to me.  All I want to do is play in it as often as I can.  With this new painting I decided not put too much academic thought into painting it, and simply paint. I work on it as I have time and at my leasure.  Everything is improvisational as I am only reacting to the work as I do it.

"Between interruptions" 2017

More to come as I finish them. 

Aloha...

Maui, I am a compositionalist.

I have lived on Maui for a full year now.
Moving my family here was one of the best choices I have ever made.  I needed to get away from the city, the ratrace, the bullshit, the traffic...
...so we sold everything and moved to one of the most remote places on the planet.

We live in a fairly remote part of the island, and I have become a Napili hermit simply because where I live is beautiful, calm, quite, and I have no need to go anywhere else.
I am still a compositionalist, but I have been expanding my vocabulary.

I have been exploring water color painting as a study for oils.  I have also been tattooing on Maui.  the last year has been a great year of research for my new series of paintings, exploring artistic mediums that I have seldom used, and slowing down my life in general as I enjoy my family and our life here on the island.  

Now, after a full year of living on the island I feel that I am reenergized enough to start my next series of oil paintings.  I will continue to post here on this blog as it relates to oil painting.

Even Caravaggio loves living as artists on Maui.

Minneapolis, I am a Compositionalist - Goodby and thanks for the dreams.

Today I am leaving my adopted home town of Minneapolis, MN.  My beautiful wife Athena ( of Such Good Dogs :)  ) and I have decided to try and live our dreams.  Athena wanted to become a professional dog trainer, and I wanted to become a professional artist.  We are now the people we have always wanted to be, and knowing that, we understand how much more we can become.      


Both of us have had the pleasure of truly knowing some of the coolest people in this city.  We both would not be the people we are without the true friendships we have built here in Minneapolis.  We love you all, and we are very sad to leave you.  Albeit, we are family, and we will never simply leave you behind.  Our home is yours.

I moved to Minneapolis in the fall of 1996 to become an artist.
This is my last oil painting I will complete in Minneapolis.  It is meaningful to me if only for that reason.  During the last 17 years I taught myself how to oil paint anything I want, anything my mind can see.  I have total control of my medium, and with that I am able to truly use my philosophy to communicate through the aesthetics of composition.  Now I am going to speak my mind.

 My current paint pallet.

A portion of my current subject matter.

BitTorrent #13  "Penitent Magdelene"

Thanks Minneapolis, I have been able to live the life of interesting dreams.  For everything you have given me, I am continually grateful.  I should be arriving in Maui, Hawaii in a few hours.  Athena and I are going to build a beautiful life together...a life of happiness and productivity in our chosen fields.  

Minneapolis, I am a Compositionalist - Goodby and thanks for the dreams...

...Maui, Hawaii here we come, welcoming the challenge.

Pictures from a collector.

I was sent these pics of two recent paintings from the new owner.  It always makes me happy when a client is excited about my paintings.   When I get an email with pictures of my work hanging in someone's home I feel proud, and thankful.

These two paintings are two of my newer works, both completed in 2011.

Thanks for the pics...

...they look great on your walls.  

Proteus Mag

Dustin parker at Proteus Mag was kind enough to feature me as on of his artists of the day.  I was featured in one of his earlier publications, Issue 2 of the magazine, summer of 2007.  Proteus Mag has evolved into a full on blog featuring artists from around the world daily.  

There are an amazing amount of talented artists on Proteus Mag's blog.  Its definitely work subscribing to his RSS feed.

After surfing through a few hundred artist of the day posts at Proteus Mag I see even more that the pure abstract artist is few and far between.  There are so few artists today that work from a traditional abstraction theses days, and I welcome that.  It gives me the social freedom to create whatever I desire without the fear of fitting into a groove of ism.

After all I am a Compositionalist with few contemporaries.

Check out Proteus Mag...

...Dustin features new artists daily.