the studio
“I have always loved stories about second chances. I think that really reflects my story, and the stories of my art.”
placebo effect
Signals from above echo in the space between.
Astral planes of country lanes, transmitted on the redundant technology of a bygone era.
Original - Acrylic & oil pastel on canvas
1525 mm (H) × 1220 mm (W)
sahara
Adrift on the planes of thought.
M. waxes lyrical, unleashing his unique form of visual sampling—a style honed over 20 years in exile.
He channels the energies all around into this magical fever dream.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
Triptych — 405 mm (W) × 1220 mm (H) per panel
the borsalino test
A genuine Borsalino hat has the ability to be rolled into a tight tube, passed through a wedding ring, and return to its original shape without any damage or creases.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
915 mm (H) × 1830 mm (W)
vesuvius
Transit: The carrying of people or things from one place to another.
“How do I explain the unexplainable?
To me, it’s a joyous celebration and conversation with the sky.
This screen contains the stories of my life.
This is me letting my hands go.
I adore it!”
Folding change screen
Original - Acrylic, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas
610 mm × 1520 mm × 3 panels
rainmaker
The natives grow restless.
Corporate revival-tent rain dancers, awaiting miracles and signals from above.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
915 mm (H) × 1830 mm (W)
fall of rome
“Nero played the fiddle as Rome burned.”
M. plays with the idea that significant events take more time to develop than they do to fall.
“It was one of the worst nights of my life… It also turned out to be one of the best nights of my life.”— M.
Original - Acrylic, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas
Triptych — 350 mm (W) × 1215 mm (H) per panel
days of Now
A man and his parts, the parts and their man.
M. examines the notion of the neuron—
a type of cell that receives and sends messages from the body to the brain, and back again.
“During my exile, I became fascinated with finding a way to show the space between thoughts…
The static. The links between them in the subconscious mind.”— M.
Original - Acrylic, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas
915 mm (H) × 1830 mm (W)
aries
M. examines the aspects of self — taking the complex and complicating it further.
Acrylic, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas
1219 mm (H) × 1829 mm (W) - (SOLD)
Blockhead Man (red)
Two sides to every story. Two stories to every side.
We are not the past… these things do not define us.
We are all living in the Days of Now.
“I’ve been painting variations of my Blockhead Man for more than twenty years.
He’s as much a part of my subconscious as I am of his.”— M.
Original - Ink and pastel on paper
A2 — 420 mm (W) × 594 mm (H) - (SOLD)
Blockhead Man (Yellow)
Two sides to every story. Two stories to every side.
We are not the past… these things do not define us.
We are all living in the Days of Now.
“I’ve been painting variations of my Blockhead Man for more than twenty years.
He’s as much a part of my subconscious as I am of his.”— M.
Original - Ink and pastel on paper
A2 — 420 mm (W) × 594 mm (H) - (SOLD)
boy and the wolf
A boy, his wolf, howling at the moon.
It’s hard to kill the thing you love.
Original - Acrylic on canvas
915 mm (W) × 1220 mm (H) - (SOLD)
zircon prince
Road trip on the highways of the central nervous system.
“I love this image. It speaks to a part of me that is uniquely me.”— M.
Original - Acrylic on canvas
760 mm (H) × 1020 mm (W) - (SOLD)
the abstractionist
M. returns to the well, drawing on recurring images and powerful symbols tattooed in his subconscious.
The duality of man and his wolf howling at the microwave oven door of the mind.
“The red TV man is a very important symbol in my work. It means everything to me.”— M.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
1020 mm (W) × 1015 mm (H)
myths and men
The words of the Father ring in his ears. Giants of men in life become mythological figures in death.
The past is not the present, the future is not now, and I cannot remember the sound of your voice.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
915 mm (W) × 1015 mm (H)
Flavivm
Some things are more meaningful in their absence.
M. examines addition via subtraction, pitting thoughts and fragments of half-thoughts against each other in gladiatorial combat.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
1220 mm (H) × 915 mm (W)
M. as Quixote
SURRENDER
This was the second painting I did after 20 years of exile from painting. It is the beginning and the end of something.
For M., as Quixote, all things begin and end with surrender.
“It wasn't until I truly surrendered that I began to live again.”— M.
Original - Acrylic on canvas
915 mm (W) × 1220 mm (H)
rent boys
M.’s study in the different aspects of self, fragmenting the persona into its respective parts.
Original - Acrylic on canvas
915 mm (H) × 1220 mm (W)
Yojimbo
Layers and ideas aplenty, like corners on a switchback road.
M. deconstructs the notion of self, identity, and safety in a world obsessed with such things.
Original - Acrylic, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas
1220 mm (H) × 915 mm (W)
Esophagus soup
His mouth opened. Choking on the words he wished he’d said. No words came out.
Esophagus Soup
Original - Acrylic on canvas
915 mm (H) × 1220 mm (W)
Zero Sum Game
Jinba Ittai literally means “person–horse–one–body.”
Ghosts of their past lives roll like tumbleweed through the abandoned streets of this one-horse-town mind.
Even if he wins, he loses.
This is the price of redemption.
Original - Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
1220 mm (H) × 915 mm (W)
Wildlife
As a young boy, my father used to tell me a story of how he saved a litter of kittens from drowning by running across the backs of crocodiles to get them across the river to safety.
As a kid, I didn’t doubt him for a second. It wasn’t until he was gone that I discovered the story was from the book Jock of the Bushveld.
“My father was a giant of a man. He was, and still is, my hero.”— M.
Original - Acrylic on canvas
915 mm (H) × 1220 mm (W)
