The series "love full of life" (2003-2006) comes out of an admission of love, the love of a working-class dandy for a queerfemme.

I'm surprised at the innocence I've allowed myself in these paintings, but...such is love...

I've lived half a century now.  I've watched our world come to a place of danger at a scale and dimension I hadn't witnessed before.  And joy, beauty, kindness...these are the weapons I find in my hands.

I began working with pastels in the mid 1990s.  Their gritty, powdery, ground-mineral substance feels right in my desert world.  I like their directness, their flexibility, and their linear capacities, as well as their deep color saturation.

I eventually began working the pastels with a brush on sanded paper, which creates a unique, velvety surface.  Although usually I work larger this technique is more suited to a small format, and I found that the paintings of this series seem right at this more intimate and personal scale.  They feel like an invitation, little altars to queer love.