Ode to Vincent
Most people possessing any familiarity with the world of art have seen reproductions of Starry Night and know that its painter led an unsettled existence.  People with this basic knowledge about Vincent van Gogh also most likely have read or heard about the artist cutting off his ear.  We'll never know the facts behind the event.  Some scholars say the tortured artist only severed an earlobe.  Others might attribute the self-injurious act to guilt, arguing Vincent committed the mutilation because he was ashamed of threatening his closest friend, painter Paul Gauguin, with a barber's razor earlier the same evening.  Ode to Vincent was completed early in ¡Ojo!'s career.  The painting began taking form in an art class where students were required to render figures and portraits using live models.  Concerning the experience, the artist says, "The model that day was a nondescript young blonde guy, a rocker with long hair, whose ruddy complexion told me he had done a good amount of drinking before coming in to model for us." ¡Ojo! couldn't accurately depict the model's facial features, so the artist moved his easel close enough to hear the presumed rocker's breathing and started painting his ear. Considering the painting's significance today, ¡Ojo! states, "It means lots of things.  It's my visual song commemorating the legend who first inspired me to paint.  Did he hear voices and believe chopping off his ear would relieve him of this common symptom of schizophrenia?  Or is the ear, that looks like an upside-down embryo if you take a close look, represent how important the sense of hearing is to all of us?  In the womb, before we see anything, we're aware of sounds - ambient noise, our parents' voices, but most importantly music.  Ode to Vincent could be considered a eulogy to the sense of hearing that we acquire before being able to see."    

Self-Portrait Quoting Kahlo
¡Ojo! began this painting in 1994 in his Berkeley studio, finishing it the following year in Mexico City where his mother and sister were attempting to resettle.  Originally, the artist depicted himself with blue skin, long hair and a demonic visage, but feeling he was being haunted by the "genius" of Mexico's most renowned painter, the final portrait depicts ¡Ojo! in superbly-rendered skin tones, wearing an expression that is subdued, with a trace of apprehension in the left eye. Of the work the artist says, "Although some of Frida's portraits are amazing, I don't think I could've dedicated a life to painting my face, like she did.  It's either enormously vain and indicates a lack of creativity, or it requires the kind of disciplined consistency I don't think I could ever have as a painter. But I'm grateful her spirit inspired me to paint 'Self-Portrait quoting Kahlo.'  As long as emulating artists of different genders doesn't lead to identity disturbances, there's nothing wrong with channeling their creative energy."

Dream Mare
A rearing horse dominates the composition, placed slightly off-center yet filling the frame so the body forms a dynamic S-curve. Diagonals of the raised forelegs and arched neck drive the eye upward, while the tail and cast shadow anchor the figure to the ground plane. The horizon band sits low, flattening space and emphasizing the sculptural silhouette against a large field of negative space. The palette is a vigorous clash of warm reds, oranges, and russets for the horse against cool greens and teals in the background, with a cobalt-blue shadow as a counterpoint. Yellow-ochre highlights flicker along the contours, heightening contrast and giving the form a heated, metallic or wooden sheen. The complementary red–green scheme pushes the subject forward and imparts visual vibration. Mood is exuberant and slightly feral—energetic, theatrical, and tense. The rearing pose suggests defiance or spirited motion, while the saturated warms convey heat and vitality; the cool, softly modulated background calms but also isolates the figure like a stage set. Technique appears expressionistic: broad, gestural brushwork with visible strokes, scumbled layers, and sketch-like outlining that leaves underdrawing and pentimenti apparent. Planes are simplified into faceted masses, and striated marks in the mane and limbs evoke the texture of carved wood or a carousel horse. Edges alternate between hard and smoky, with modeling achieved more by temperature shifts than by meticulous blending.

Green Chair
"The Green Chair" celebrates the upcycled life.  The chair in the painting was purchased at a Salvation Army in downtown Oakland.  At the time,¡Ojo! was a not only a graduate student in UC Berkeley's anthropology department, he was also manager for an apartment building a few blocks from campus.  To stretch the fellowship checks he received as a National Science Foundation scholar, ¡Ojo! made a habit of buying second hand goods - vintage threads at Wasteland, CDs at Amoeba Music, books at Moe's and household items at the Berkeley flea market, where he was also a vendor of his family's discarded clothing, often brand-name apparel he'd occasionally transport back to Berkeley from Orange County in a Toyota pick-up he purchased for precisely that purpose. Like the green chair in the painting, anything can be upcycled if context allows.  When asked about this piece's message, the artist says, "Matisse painted his 'Green Line,' I painted a green chair.  With the right clout and connections, a banana affixed to a wall with duct tape can sell for millions.  With creative inspiration, determination, and a proper investment of time and energy, a forty dollar piece of furniture can become an artwork worth a lot more."       

Immaculate Conception
During his graduate school years, ¡Ojo! was the romantic companion of the woman depicted here, at the time a UC Berkeley undergraduate. While the relationship unraveled due to the onset of the artist’s mental illness, he remembers their years together brought them a sense of adventure and unbounded potential. After the artist was released from prison, the painting was damaged then restored. Although ¡Ojo! considers it his best painting in terms of color, composition and subject matter, he destroyed the work in a fit of concern for his former girlfriend. “I was under the spell of a fearful belief that interaction with the image of real person could lead to the harm of that person,” says the artist. "After the regret of not having treated this woman better, destroying her painting is one the biggest regrets I have felt as an artist."

A Quaint Haunt
A depiction of the apartment in Berkeley, California where ¡Ojo! rendered his first paintings "A Quaint Haunt" portrays just that - an abode at once cozy and haunted by something mysterious.  This is the room where the artist filled his head with theory and philosophy he read in oodles of new and second-hand books.  A room where he watched movies by Scorsese, Hitchcock and foreign directors on VHS tapes from a local video rental business.  This room witnessed its inhabitant grow as a scholar and deal with the stress, joys and perplexities of being an apartment building manager.  Unit nine in a complex that had its share of Melrose Place romantic drama is where the fledgling painter played the role of Casanova and felt the tender devastation of heartbreak.  ¡Ojo!'s artistry took root in this residential space, where his waking nightmares hang on the walls and the spinning ceiling fan dissipates stale air and heat, the fan's cord oscillating like a double-helix of DNA.    

Point Reyes

First Selfie - Looking Up

Still Life with Decoy

Sad Skin

Black Word

Concerning Rooster

'Scuse Me, There's a Scream in Sky

Coffee Pot with Orange
This painting's subject matter is reminiscent of a Cezanne still-life and marks a transition in ¡Ojo!'s brushwork. It is also one of two pieces he signed with his birth name initials, a trait he adopted from New York painter Joseph Solman. ¡Ojo! admires Solman for merging modern subjects - the portrait, urbanscape, and still life - with a technique that is arguably expressionistic. Of Coffee Pot with Orange, the artist says, "I first experienced a caffeine buzz in 1988 after drinking a potent latte at Cafe Milano across the street from the UC Berkeley campus. That buzz led to a life-long habit I've abandoned because I was concerned not only for my own health and life, but for the well being of other people who struggle with cravings for addictive substances."

Signature Light

Hummingbird Speaks

When Walls Speak

Santa Ana Dreamin'

Before the Deluge

Tartaria
Completed in 2008, “Tartaria” is a piece derived from a Los Angeles Times front page photograph of an Oakland fire’s aftermath. First exhibited in 2025 at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, the painting’s name derives from a theory claiming that a technologically-advanced civilization once spanned the globe. Although the design of Tartaria’s flawlessly masoned cities enabled them to generate free energy, a catastrophic “mud flood” devastated the cities of the Tartarians, but, according to the theory, their traces are still evident in pre-modern architectural design utilizing intricate masonry as well as in more recent brickwork buildings. Today, mud floods sometimes occur after torrential rains fall on areas where fires have already left behind devastation. Given the environmental hazards caused by climate change, “Tartaria” calls for communities like those in California recently devastated by wild fires to be designed and built with sustainability in mind. The painting also advocates for commentators whose unconventional explanations of factors causing environmental distress are often ignored or ridiculed by official media and science. ¡Ojo! states, “Outliers to the world of science often make contributions to that world in ways which can cause scientific paradigms to shift and altogether new truth to be revealed.” The artist hopes that someday even a theory which claims environmental change may have socio-linguistic roots can lead to a remedy for global warming.

What If I Were to Blow Up?

Idol Hand I

Idol Hand II

Idol Hand III

Idol Hand IV

Idol Hand V

Idol Hand VI

Idol Hand VII

Idol Hand VIII

Idol Hand IX

Enigma Panda

Dog Lowdown

Becoming Becca

The Doldrums

Verboten

Camel

Solar Day

Still Life - Pitchers, Lemons, Onions, What?

Toro and Toreador

Houses We Build

Cold Hand of Madness, Cool Hand of Reason

See Light

Jubu Djanx in Mobster Hat

At Peace with Hunger

Furget Mindful Sleep

Bueno Malo

Stop Judging Me

Narrative Painting

Don't Ask Dr. Sigmund

Don't Turn Your Back

Authentic Reproductions

Mother Marry

Automaton

At Risk

Annus Equus

Ivory Cat

Scaredy Cat

Ebony Cat

Pink Elephant

Befor 1969

Lil' Green Chair

Down with SAMO!

SoCali Kurt

Two Swans, One Heart