The Messenger: Woodbury Fire
2019, 40" x 32", oil on gaterboard
The iconic Four Peaks of the Mazatzal Wilderness mark this Sonoran Desert landscape with its granitic boulders that harbor a diverse fauna. Desert Lavender ekes out a living in the gravelly soil. Woodrat, common chuckwalla, centipede and black-tailed rattlesnake find cover in the crevasses. A Common Raven, the Messenger, circles before the plume of combusted desert, semidesert grassland, chaparral, and pinyon-juniper, portending monumental changes to the biotic community. 123,875 acres burned, becoming the fifth largest wildfire in Arizona history at the time, but now pushed to number seven by the 2020 Bush Fire (193,455) and the 2021 Telegraph fire 180,757.
The Messenger (detail) moth on desert lavender
The Messenger (detail) desert centipede
The Messenger (detail) packrat (neotoma sp.)
The Messenger (detail) chuckwalla
The Messenger (detail) common raven
The Messenger (in progress)
Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation
2018, oil on board, 16 x 20in
Lioptera sp., Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation (detail)
Palm damselfly, Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation (detail)
Sumatran elephant, Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation (detail)
Sumatran rhinoceros, Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation (detail)
Sumatran tiger, Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation (detail)
orangutan, Preparing for Palm Oil Plantation (detail)
Biophony
2018, oil on panel, 11.68 x 11.68 in
White-lined sphinx moth hyles lineata, Biophony (detail)
grasshopper, Biophony (detail)
Desert tortoise and Gila Woodpecker, Biophony (detail)
Breeding Bird Atlas Block (Peralta, Superstition Mountains, AZ)
2016, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 in
Still Life
2016, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 in
Box Canyon (Mineral Mountains, AZ)
2008, watercolor, 11 x 7 in
This beautiful, steep-walled canyon northeast of Florence, Arizona is a tributary of the Gila River. Its’ flows are ephemeral, dependant upon local precipitation.
Rio Verde
2007, acrylic, 10 x 10 in
Verde River
2007, watercolor, 9 x 12 in
Anchieta Ridged Frogs
2005, watercolor, 8 x 10 in