Humor Arts Museum

Acrylic on cold press paper

11 x 13 in., 28 x 33 cm. (Framed)

$350 (+S/H)        BUY

 

Cows are goofy; yet also intelligent and affectionate. I am surrounded by dairy farms and fields full of grazing cows, whose vanity and inquisitiveness allows me to freely sketch them.

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Pencil on paper

9 x 12 in., 23 x 30 cm.

$200 (+S/H)       BUY

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For sixteen years, I was Artistic Director of a weekend Circus Series on a moored showboat in Brooklyn. Amram - one of my favorite acrobats - was also a religious Jewish man who observed the Sabbath; he would only work on Sundays. It is unusual for a man to be as flexible as he is. Russian-born, Amram studied circus in Israel, before relocating to the U.S.

Charcoal on paper

13 x 17 in. 33 x 43 cm. (Framed)

$450 (+S/H)       BUY

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When I traveled with circus, I always befriended the elephants and their caretakers. They are remarkably sensitive animals, as emotionally charged as people are. I never tire of drawing and painting them.

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Acrylic on handmade paper

15 x 10 in., 38 x 25 cm. 

$600 (+S/H)       BUY

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In the early eighties, I did a series of portraits of French clowns.

My friend in Paris lent me her almost disintegrated century-old book with sepia photos that I often used for reference. Historic figures and legends of clowning still fascinate me, as well as the balance of comedy & tragedy.

Oil on rice paper

9 x 12 in., 23 x 30 cm.

$300 (+S/H)       BUY

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Sparks of longing elevate us when we are mired in despair.

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Mixed media on paper

25 x 35 in., 64 x 89 cm. (Framed)

$1200 (+S/H)       BUY

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Another series begun in the eighties, based on “Endangered

Animals” and using collage as a medium, produced this jubilant fellow.

Acrylic on cold press paper

14 x 11 in., 36 x 28 cm.

$500 (+S/H)       BUY

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This portrait was made expressly to honor Beni Malone, Founder and longtime Director of “Wonderbolt Productions in Newfoundland, who produced the St. John’s International Festival I just attended as a lecturer and plein air artist. Beni has been clowning for half a century.

Mixed media on paper

12 x 16 in., 30 x 41 cm. (Framed)

NFS

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I was a teenager when I painted this scene, and the mother of one of my childhood friends bought it. I had all but forgotten it when I went to visit her recently, and found it framed in a spot of honor on her wall!

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Acrylic on canvas

8 x 10 in., 20 x 25 cm.

$450 (+S/H)       BUY

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Living in the Hudson Valley, the migrating geese are always an audio and visual treat to behold.

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Ink on paper

14 x 11 in., 36 x 28 cm. (Framed)

$250 (+S/H)       BUY

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The binding rapport he developed with all humanity was not just due to his musicality and congenial soul; but a fierce focus on environmental, ecological and interracial work. He was a caring crooner.

Oil on unstretched canvas

30 x 24 in., 76 x 61 cm.

$1800 (+S/H)       BUY

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This is a portrait of Petra, a remarkable aerialist/acrobat who dated a longtime friend of mine: the legendary British juggler Luke Wilson. They both came to visit me often in NYC when I had a loft on the Bowery and performed in my Showboat Series. Two weeks after Luke proposed to Petra, he was diagnosed with cancer, and died three months later. Petra, devastated, called from Germany and described how she could not even stand, let alone balance anymore. She felt she was living on a precipice. This oil painting and one of Luke, were exhibited at the Krystallpalast Theater Gallery in Leipzig, Germany almost ten years ago.

Acrylic on cold press paper

9 x 12 in., 23 x 30 cm. (Framed)

$300 (+S/H)       BUY

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My youngest sister has had half a dozen English bulldogs

over the years. They all remind me of Jackie Gleason or Rodney Dangerfield; very sweet dogs, but medically challenging to own.

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Watercolor on cold press paper

23 x 29 in., 58 x 74 cm. (Framed)

$950 (+S/H)       BUY

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I love the affability of large sea creatures: seals, dolphins, whales and certainly manatees; ballerinas of the ocean.

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Ink on paper

14 x 11 in., 36 x 28 cm.

$400 (+S/H)       BUY

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This line drawing from my French Clown Series also features James Guyon and Les Freres Plattier, great physical clowns

of their time.

Mixed medium on paper

12 x 24 in., 30 x 61 cm. (Framed) 

$775 (+S/H)       BUY

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An autobiographical painting created this year for an exhibition

entitled “Reflections of a Local Life”. Here is the poem that accompanied it.

Pioneer

We kissed L.I. goodbye and moved upstate after my father found work at West Point. Ten years old, the forests became my own training academy. Before that, I never knew I needed tension in my legs to hold a handstand, never understood how winds and rushing streams could wrestle other tensions away.

Balance and balancing became a newfound world to pioneer. I tight-walked logs in rivers, climbed oaks, hung by my knees from curved branch limbs. Ran in dappled light through grasses that grew like ochre sheaths.

Stark solitude. The wilderness companioned all I knew and wanted to: the spirit as shadow, fleeting, well etched. Indigo hills in soft silhouettes, distant as relatives, watching me.

Acrylic on cold press paper

9 x 10.5 in., 23 x 27 cm. 

$350 (+S/H)       BUY

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One of the most vivacious and uplifting souls that I - sadly - never met in person. A multi-talented performer, Helen devoted half her life to Hospital Clowning, particularly the unit she founded and directed in Canada. We became friends on FB two years ago, when she was diagnosed with cancer and launched an incredibly detailed and humorous accounting of her illness and intensive treatments. Her abject positivism and courageous stance of “grin and bear it”, were both unnerving and inspirational. Tragically, Helen lost her battle early this year. I wanted to capture the light she had and radiated to so many over her shortened lifetime.

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Acrylic on canvas

18 x 24 in., 46 x 61 cm.

$1150 (+S/H)       BUY

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Another portrait of two longtime friends, Andre and Guto, Brazilians I met when they first came to perform at Joe Papp’s Public Theater in NY. On a subsequent visit, they flew over the lake in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, as part of Shakespeare’s “A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream”, and inspired this painting. Guto went on to perform for ten years with Cirque du Soleil’s “Dralion."

Gouache on paper

12 x 9 in., 30 x 23 cm.

$200 (+S/H)       BUY

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Dogs are a recurring muse for me. I have owned and trained

several who performed with me onstage and in circus rings. I prefer large breeds or mutts, but living 40 years in the East Village gave me an appreciation for chihuahuas - those fearless Napoleon warriors who seem to feel that THEY are the Mayors of the city.

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Mixed media on paper

8.5 x 10” in., 22 x 25 cm. (Framed)

$300 (+S/H)       BUY

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aerialists and acrobats are among my favorite movers to capture and interpret; their grace, risk and sheer lightness of being.

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Acrylic on canvas

12 x 6 in., 30 x 15 cm.

$400 (+S/H)       BUY

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The Endangered Animal Series I began as collages decades ago, has continued, evolving into pastel drawings, acrylic and oil paintings. Otters are pure clowns of the animal world; their charm, mischievous demeanor, and physical antics are irresistible.

Ink on paper

12 x 9 in., 30 x 23 cm.

$450 (+S/H)       BUY

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Another character from the French Clown Series.

 

 

 

 

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Acrylic on canvas

12 x 15 in., 30 x 38 cm. (Framed)

$750 (+S/H)       BUY

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A pandemic painting, when everything felt bleak and difficult.

Our foundations of security and health became dark shards amidst the unknown threats. Yet, one had to keep tuned to the potentiality of light, of reason and recovery, of being able to eventually fly after being mired for so long. It was the hope: to soar again.

Acrylic on cold press paper,

10.5 x 12.5 in., 27 x 32 cm. (Framed)

$375 (+S/H)       BUY

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If chihuahuas are Mayors, pugs are little gangsters. Sweet- faced ones, mind you; not really dangerous, just small macho characters.

Acrylic on wood

6 x 9 in., 15 x 23 cm.

NFS

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I painted a collection of wooden boxes last year; sold most and gifted friends and family with others. This “hand out” was the first one that found a buyer. I remember hoping it portended a sign - of people having heart and holding others in high regard.