As I start to explore and express my spiritual journey I am offering artist's life lessons this fall. I have put together a CSI-Carl Color Wheel, as a visual guide, 6 color drawing examples Red Yellow Blue Green Purple Orange using colors symbols Icons to give voice to the multiple expression of color.  Students will explore each Color Symbol and Icon to complete specific assignments along this journey. This is an abstract art journey with an emphasis on color, symbols, icons,  to express my personal and sometimes secret thoughts voices visions colors marks meaning through a creative and unconventional  expression.

These sketchbook drawings  were done in felt tip pen and a triangle. I was very intensely looking into space and telling stories about line and form using lines dots and broken lines with various shapes textures and a little landscape thrown in the mix.  Some of this emerged in later paintings.  The Series (the three drawings)  grew from was "Chicago Radio" Listening to the radio actors and imagining what was happening.   In these I was listening to music on the radio and imagining while drawing with felt pen in black&white on paper.  I don't do acid inspired art any more but it was fun then. It wasn't illegal to do it and it was free.

My Abstraction started with a  question,  grid or not grid, which over time has changed but in the beginning it was grid. I wanted to show that as an abstract artist I just wasn't throwing paint on the canvas, and if I did I would have a structure that I started  with and would evolve over the time of my career.  Rather than an evolution of mark making it became an evolution of personal style color choice thought process everything related to that style of that moment in time. When I was emotionally and imaginatively connected to the canvas,  I would let my vision flow through my brush and on to the canvas.
Every Decade I have changed my core expression and carried over something from before the change adding it to the new work.

Melt Down #3  " Rise of the Tribe"
This painting combined the elements of my Black Leather Landscape with Color in an interplay of shapes with marks and defined spaces.  This series was a move in a new direction for me.  Earlier work from the 70's was more style oriented with abstraction and geometric spaces. 
Just to give you an Idea of what went on before this period,  It was 1971 and  my graduation from College, NIU DeKalb, Illinois.  I went in to school a nerdish art major and came out literally as an OUT Gay man with his Lover ready to make our mark in Chicago.
Why I say out gay man and couple is that in college Guy and I met at a peace rally on campus against the war in Viet Nam. 
He was passing out flyers and got me hand out flyers with him. We  had hot coco together got to know each other and as our relationship developed so did my art.  Next time I will take you back to the 70's before we go further into the 80's

 In the early 70's we were planning to move to California after graduating from College(Guy and I) this painting was from a show I did for a gallery on Halsted Street, Lascaux Gallery, The painting is now in a private collection in California, and is one of the few survivors of that period.