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WRITING PAGE: MileMarker and other Projects/Essays  

Much of my writing came about during a job I had from 1982-1987 as an art-shipping truck driver, crossing the country alone on a route from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Santa Fe, Dallas, Chicago and New York, schlepping paintings and sculpture between artists and museums, collectors and galleries. During that time I found photo to be the most flexible way to remain an artist every day, taking pictures every now and then but not putting me behind schedule. Then, in motel rooms or out walking after dinner, I began to describe in writing the places where I was walking or looking. The writing eventually was compiled into a partly-published manuscript called MILEMARKER, while its short-paragraph style turned into fiction (to a degree), and found its way to the paintings, offering a verbal element layered over and perhaps contradicting in some way the visual element. In subsequent years I was able to write history "poems" for the city of Dallas, Texas, as parts of public art proposals. These days I also write an occasional essay, but most writing is to be found as an integral element on many of the paintings.

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WHERE'S THE BEEF?
A LOOK FOR (AND LACK OF) THE MALE EROTIC IMAGE IN CONTEMPORARY ART.
IS THE TERM "HOMO-EROTIC" PEJORATIVE?

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THE BLUE COUCH IS LEAVING: LAST CALL FOR EVERGREEN PARK
(with Errant Thoughts Regarding the Art Institute of Chicago, Nekkid Womyn, and My Kind Of Town)

An extensive essay from 2011 describing the cleaning out my parents' home after their passing, but segueing into a consideration of artworks in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

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THE VERY LARGE ARRAY (from MILEMARKER)
AWARD-WINNING SHORT-SHORT STORY,
WESTWORD NEWS & ARTS WEEKLY, DENVER, COLORADO
January 4-10, 1989

 

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From MILEMARKER