Self Portrait, oil on canvas, 20" x 28," 2019.
My feathered friends joined me in my meadow. The graffiti includes inspiration from my novel Never a Cloud.—To an Etruscan, all was alive.
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Puppy love drives one to distraction.
Love, and peace, and happiness in 2020 to my readers, both near and far! Love, Jo
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Juno by Moonlight, 2018, oil on canvas, 24" x 20."
Please visit Lek Chailert's "Save Elephant Foundation" and watch the movie of her life's work told by the LA director Ashley Bell, Love & Bananas, an elephant story.
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Boy Posse, 2018, oil on canvas, 22" x 28."
Dedicated to the children of DACA and the American south-west. I lived for a period in Mexico my nineteenth year. I fell in love with the people who watched over me, shared what little they had, forging a place in my heart forever.
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This was the first piece I designed. My blueprint is worth nothing if Johns wasn't around to fabricate it. I hit the ground running and looked to enter it in competition. As fate would have it, Design Within Reach was looking for entries. DWR has locations across the country presenting an international collection of contemporary and reissued modern design. We have bought furniture and lighting from them in the past. The Lucca Armoire was accepted as one of twenty-three finalists from across the nation for their 2008 M + D + F, Modern + Design + Function show in Providence, Rhode Island. The winner's piece would go into production with DWR. We did not win but were thrilled to be a finalist alongside other designers, and architects, including Brown, Smith, Yale and RISD grads.
The piece is Macassar ebony veneer over quarter sawn walnut, with nickel hardware. The finish is organic linseed oil and beeswax.
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Sapele pommele veneer with hand dove-tailed Swiss pear drawers. Sterling silver custom made hardware by jeweler Timothy Grannis. Organic French varnish finish.
1st Place Vermont Fine Furniture Design Competition 2011
I designed this piece for myself and have the luxury of writing at it. When we showed Alienor, it being my first show with Johns, I had no idea what to expect. The comments went like this:
—"It makes me think of an animal because the veneer looks like animal hide. It feels alive."
—"It's super sexy."
—"The legs are so feminine like a woman in stilettos. I can imagine a whole bedroom suite like this one. But it might be hard to sleep."
—"I feel like it could talk to me."
—"I want to caress it, can I touch it?"
I couldn't have asked for more. It meant the world to me. Design has to be one of the most complete out of the body experiences. An image in one's mind materializes from thin air into an entity by way of determination and skill. Beyond the joy I find working on the canvas or written page, furniture makes contact and serves my body. I've jumped outside myself to land back inside. I couldn't live without any of the three discplines I love.
I named the piece after Alienor, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Spirited 12th century wife of Henry II of England. The mother of Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland. Held in my esteem, Alienor was one of the world's first feminists. I'll dedicate a post to her one day.
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oil on canvas, 30" x 60"
Inspired by a wall panel from 9BC at Rome's Museo dell'Ara Pacis. The temple/altar was discovered in 1938 buried in a flood plain beneath 13' of silt and moved to its present location.
On the left: Leda = a Sparta queen
Swan = Zeus, (Helen of Troy = the daughter of Leda and Zeus)
At center: Pax = Roman goddess of Peace, call her Gaia, the mother goddess or Sofia/ Sophia
On the right: Persephone and the Serpent
Spartan women were nicknamed 'thigh slappers' because they held competitions to see who could jump and touch their derriere the most times. –It's hard work.– In Sparta, the women ate the same food as the warriors. And there were no restrictions on women voicing their opinion. Sparta was marked by a communal sharing of resources, over time inequalities led to plutocracy and their decline and subjugation by Rome.
Elysian fields or Eden, Earth's resources are all we will ever have.
"Spartan women were who they were because Spartan men were strong enough and confident enough to appreciate them." –Gorgo, a Sparta queen
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