Citizens Speak-election 2026

                                                  Estuary Bog acrylic on Yupo 20x26 inches

 Now is the time we Americans can finally  say enough is enough. Everyone knows the issues, this is the time to protest. Conservatives also are called to patriotism and to rebuke their own political party. Trump will remain as president and any Democratic wild socialist impulses will be vetoed, you can be sure. Now is the time to put the country first before it is altogether too late. Vote and let your anger be heard.

                                         Fanno Creek Wetlands acrylic on Yupo 23x35 inches

                                             Rainforest Runoff acrylic on Yupo 26x20 inches

                                                 Canal Acres oil on canvas 20x20 inches

                                             Lacamas Meadows oil on canvas 30x24 inches

                                                  Winter Slough oil on canvas 20x16 inches

                                              Wetlands Sunrise oil on canvas 15x30 inches

                                            Toward a Clearing acrylic on yupo 14x11 inches

                                                       Ice Fog oil on canvas 36x36 inches

                                                 Still Winter River oil on Yupo 26x20 inches

 Some recent work above.

I`m feeling so much better.

 A couple of months ago we were driving east on Oregon Highway #22 to visit John`s parents. It is a two lane road each direction and I`m driving in the fast lane. Up ahead I see brake lights and begin to slow down. The car ahead of me has stopped and all of the sudden a well dressed older woman jumps
out of the car, stops the other lane of traffic, scoots back toward the traffic median to escort a duck and her offspring safe passage across the highway. She darts back into her car and is off. The whole scene just took seconds. I don`t think I`ve ever seen such reflexive heroism. The speed limit there is 55 mph yet the look on her face was one of pure purpose. It was like a vision and a lesson.

Probably because it was so unexpected, the death of Dolly Parton was like a punch in the stomach. We were all so utterly bereft. She was the best of us and we needed her. Heroes are hard to hold onto.

  This is the work of the Chinese/French painter Chu Teh Chun.

Asian art was one of my first loves. Of course I realize the term "Asian" is completely outdated, condescending, and ridiculous. There are too many unique cultures to have one broad definition. But when I was young, the "East" was much simpler in the books, magazines and encyclopedias I could get my hands on. The work I liked best had a clear spontaneity to it. That risk still excites me. Tthough I`ve appreciated the movement, color and dynamism of Chu Teh Chun`s painting, I`ve often wished it were somewhat rougher. Nonetheless, I`ve learned plenty from him about drama, composition and translating landscape representation into abstraction.

 The works above are by a living British painter Ian Rayer-Smith. He lets it all hang out and I admire his audacity very much. To me, they are landscape derived if only subconsciously.

                                                     Josh Mecouch. Love this guy!

                                                                 Herbert Brandl

A great Austrian painter I just now learned died a year ago at 66. That`s messed up.

 You would have to be old to remember Willie Mays. He is certainly worth remembering.

 

Let`s not forget Ukraine and work to reverse the President`s shameful betrayal.

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Pride 26

                                                        Low Tide acrylic on Nara 18x12 inches

  Here I am. Some dark nights of the soul in this new year. Mental health is health and fortunately I`m from California where we get help if we need it. No stigma. I was able to call in the calvary too by virtue of an annual Medicare 'wellness' check. This remnant, woke bit of Democratic governance provided me practical, local contacts. Thanks Obama! For the first time in my life I questioned whether I even wanted to paint anymore. This caused a loss of identity that was really not comfortable. I`ve always felt extremely lucky to never have identity issues. But what do I want from my painting practice in this later part of my life? I`m still grappling with that but I do know now that any resolution will come from the painting process itself. What I`m losing interest in is the livelihood part especially. The 'career' stuff.  I never was focused enough on the professional strategies to advance much, I own that. For now and maybe from now onward, I don`t even want to think about shows or open studio tours.   

     From lots of reading and conversations with friends and professionals a way forward is becoming more clear. Those loved ones older than me have been particularly encouraging. The adaptations involve examination of things I took for granted. I`m learning this 'late life' is a time of 'being' more than doing. The race was won, I can relax.

  So I`m questioning now the utility of this blog [18 years old next month]. If promoting my work is less of a priority, is the journaling aspect of this enough to keep up the sporadic effort? I`m not sure though even as I type this I`m remembering all of the personal social benefits this blog has brought me. Significant friendships at a time when I didn`t know many people in my new community.

                                                              photographer unknown

  Randall and John, blessed to be gay and to find each other. As teens we had no imagination for how the world would change. May it change even more.  [photo by Leo Rijn]

 This Pride month of June has some joy and hope again, the tide has turned. Cruelty, ignorance and greed have not been defeated of course but they are not overwhelming the country like they were a year ago. The stoic citizens of Minneapolis broke that wave in the dead of winter. The arrogant, foolish war on Iran further undermined the hateful goals of this power obsessed administration. Republicans using the trans population to enflame and deceive Americans may be faltering too, I hope so. Trans culture is critical in understanding the complexity of gender in human relationships and expression. It is not black and white. Give the LGBT folk in your life some love. We are everywhere.

                                                                      David Hockney

  Speaking of pride. The late David Hockney was a true role model in being a gay artist. It was literally a matter of fact and he never hid it, apologized or explained. The confidence to be so boldly himself when homosexuality was still criminalized in the UK, I believe came from the loving relationship he maintained with his parents throughout their lives.                                                                                           As a landscape painter with plenty of opinions I`ll just say I took issue with much of the color in his later paintings. What I admired the most in his work was his ability with drawing. As good as Van Gogh and Rembrandt.  His first I-phone drawings were so inspired and he did them with his finger! He loved to draw! I wish I had more of that urge. What drawing I`ve done has always had a research element to it and less one of pleasure. It`s been wonderful to read so many accounts of his personality and work ethic since his death. His life sure looked like a work of art to me.      

                                           by David Hockney, one of my favorite paintings

                                                         Mt. Adams 1 wc 9x12 RDTipton

                                                         Mt. Adams 2 wc 9x12 RDTipton

                                                            Mt. Adams 3 wc 9x12 RDTipton

  We were in Hood River recently and I had forgotten the clear close view of Mt. Adams available on the west side of town. Just stunning. I bought some actual cotton paper [not plastic] to paint these on.

 I really don`t have much to show for the last few months. Painting only recently began to feel right again and I don`t want to burden the impulse with ambition. I`m figuring out this next part of my life slowly.

                                       Wetland Winter Tangle acrylic on Yupo 20x26 inches

  I`m teaching myself how to paint with just acrylics, like I used to before 1984. They haven`t changed much, they still pale in comparison to the immediacy of oil paint but the medium is much more suited to paper and I`m committed to working on paper. I`ve always been more comfortable with it and it is much easier to store. The problem for me is the weaker pigment load in acrylics. I continually need to repaint sections over and over. I`m doing it differently now.

Arthur Sze, 25th U. S. Poet Laureate 

                                                                     sunset on Mars

#whatisrememberedlives

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New Year with Resistance

                                  Dry Falls California, watermedia on Yupo collage 26x20 inches

                                           Masirah watermedia on Yupo collage 18x12 inches

                                          Rajasthan watermedia on Yupo collage 18x12 inches

Three good collages in one week! I haven`t had a nice streak like that in a while. Many of you know that rare experience in making something where everything just goes right into place. All the choices could work but one does especially well. Enchanted is the feeling and it is intoxicating. Unexpected too at this pivotal point in our [US] history. Not since the Vietnam era have things seemed so volatile. God bless the people of Minnesota!

 Nurses are sacred, they are the helpers. That is what Alex Pretti was doing when he was murdered. Assisting a woman who had been gassed.        This will not stand. 

There is enough unity to decisively say this is not the country we want. Often we know what is unacceptable before arriving at a neutral civil place. Everyone is on edge but it`s clear to me, immigration enforcement will have to change tactics. Their Proud Boy dreams are not going to fly. If the Republican party wasn`t so cowardly at its core they could rein in this deranged president. Democrats bounced their sitting president when it was finally revealed how unstable he was. Democrats, despite their feeble opposition now, actually do care about the constitution. The one they swore their loyalty to. What a bitter fact that the only people who can actually do something about his terrible political moment are Republicans! So patriots will resist until the mid terms, then there will be a reckoning. So sorry world. Our government is messing up EVERYTHING.

If you haven`t seen it, this response by the wise young Amanda Gordon can help your heart;

 

Have you been watching Kilauea? OMG such non stop beauty! I saw a video shot during a rainstorm that was beyond imagining. Smoke, mist, swirling air borne cinders, engulfing clouds then red embers in a blue sky. The eruptions are numbered and the last one I observed was 41. Take a look, it is dazzling and happening in real time in the 50th state.

                                                      Bandon oil on canvas 40x30 inches

Bandon has the best beach for kids in Oregon. So many caves and hiding places.

                                                                  by Josh Mecouch

                                                                          Josh Mecouch

I love this guy, what an original.

                                                                          Emily Ball

                                                                              Emily Ball

                                                                       Emily Ball

She is new to me and I was quickly taken by these poetic abstractions. The three here are from a series called 'Longing and Sweet Sadness'. The painting were created in response to a particular piece of land and transitions in her family. Here is what she has written about them;  

This body of work has the theme of 'Longing and Sweet Sadness'. The focus began in 2021 but really galvanised and gathered momentum after the death of my father at the end of 2022. I drew and painted in the woods at the back of my parents house. This is where I played as a child, making camps and exploring. It is where I made huge paintings for my degree show after the hurricane of 1987, when I was in my early twenties. It is the place where my children played, camped and went on bluebell walks every year when they were small. It is where I walk now when I visit my mother.

                                                                      by Garry Winogrand

This photo says so much about children and also New Mexico.

I was 22 when I moved there and it was like shifting into a dream. A common experience for most newcomers. 

                                         A Corner of the Park acrylic on Yupo 20x20 inches

Someone I love has begun transitioning. As open as I thought I was, there was so much more to learn. This post by the BBC explains things well.

If broadcasters say they want clarity on sex and gender, then clarity has to include biology in full, not selectively.

Being trans is not an ideology. It is not a belief system. It is not a trend. It is a recognised biological outcome of human development.

Sex differentiation in humans is not a single switch flipped at birth. It is a multi-stage biological process involving chromosomes, gene expression, hormone exposure, receptor sensitivity, and brain development, all occurring at different points in fetal growth. Those processes do not always align in the same direction.

Every human embryo begins on a shared developmental pathway. Later in gestation, hormones and gene activation guide the development of reproductive anatomy. Brain development related to identity, self-perception, and body mapping occurs on a different timeline. When those processes diverge, a person may be born with anatomy that does not align with how their brain understands their sexed self. That is what we call being trans.

This is not controversial biology. It is documented in endocrinology, neurobiology, and developmental science.

Neuroimaging studies have shown that many trans people exhibit brain structures and neural response patterns that more closely align with their lived sex than with the sex recorded at birth. Intersex variations such as androgen insensitivity syndrome and congenital adrenal hyperplasia further demonstrate that sex itself is not a simple binary. These are natural variations of the same biological system that produces everyone else.

When media coverage reduces trans people to slogans or treats identity as a purely social preference, it erases that biological reality. When it repeatedly frames trans existence as “contested” without explaining the science, it invites suspicion rather than understanding.

If journalists are going to say audiences find terms like “trans woman” or “trans man” confusing, then the responsible response is not to strip people of accurate language. It is to explain why those terms exist in the first place.

Clarity does not come from flattening complexity. It comes from explaining it.

There is a difference between saying sex is observed at birth and pretending biology ends there. It does not. Biology is a lifelong process shaped by development, hormones, and the brain. Ignoring that does not make reporting neutral. It makes it incomplete.

Trans women experience misogyny because they are perceived and treated as women. Trans men experience gender policing because they are perceived and treated as men who violate expectations. Gender-diverse people experience both because rigid systems struggle with anyone who exposes their limits.

That harm is not theoretical. It shows up in healthcare access, safety, employment, and mental health outcomes.

If public broadcasters want to be clear, then clarity must include this truth: trans people exist because biology allows for them. They are not an exception to nature. They are part of it.

Reporting that fails to say this risks reinforcing fear rather than informing the public. And when fear is left unchallenged, it does not remain neutral. It becomes harmful.

Accuracy is not just about legal definitions. It is about telling the whole biological story.

Anything less is not clarity. It is omission.

Daniel Lismore

Click HERE for work for sale in my studio