St Francis Xavier Church Narthex Project - New York

In 2023 I received a commission to make tapestries for the entryway, the narthex, of the Church of St. Francis Xavier (SFX) in New York. 

In notes about this project the church explains that it continues "the parish's modern-day commitment to racial justice and inclusion which dates to at least 1960."  SFX describes the focus of the narthex tapestries to be “on people of heroic virtue who are from the Americas.” The figures portrayed “reflect the diversity of our world and the commonality all seekers of justice share.” Included in the images are a number of people who “died a martyr’s death to bring about a more just world.” In the tapestries these figures, murder victims all, are depicted in red.

The project was completed and installed in July, 2024.

The Church of St Francis Xavier - 16th St, NYC

SFX Narthex | East wall tapestry | 162 x 110 inches

SFX Narthex | East wall tapestry | 162 x 110 inches

SFX Narthex | East wall tapestry | 162 x 110 inches

SFX Narthex | West wall tapestry | 162 x 110 inches

SFX Narthex | West wall tapestry | 162 x 110 inches

East Narthex Wall design with diagram of depicted figures

West Narthex Wall design with diagram of depicted figures

Installing the east narthex wall tapestry - July 22, 2024

Preparatory sketch for Fannie Lou Hamer - oil on prepared paper

Preparatory sketch for Michael Schwerner - oil on prepared paper

Preparatory sketch for Kiyoshi Kuromiya - oil on prepared paper

Preparatory sketch for Cynthia Wesley - oil on prepared paper

Test pieces in studio - Spring 2024

FLORIMAR - New Still Life and Seascape Paintings at Sullivan Goss

Julia3 - Ice | 23 x 18 inches | Oil on Panel | 2022 

Dark Peonies | 16 x 12 inches | Oil on Panel | 2022 

Majolica | 36 x 24 inches | Oil on Panel | 2022 

Anacapa2 | 14 x 11 inches | Oil on Panel | 2022 

White, Red Azaleas | 20 x 20 inches | Oil on Panel | 2022 

The New Normal: Art and Politics at Vita Art Center

The New Normal: Art and Politics | Vita Art Center, Ventura CA, October 2022
 Main room installation with drawings by Derek Boshier, painting and tapestry by John Nava, wall of works by Dane Goodman 

Works by Deborah Lawrence

Works by Dane Goodman

Work by Colin Gray

Book by Derek Boshier

The New Normal | Installation view - Main room

The New Normal | Installation view 

The New Normal | Vita Gallery One installation

Six pieces that are part of the New Normal show at the Vita Art Center in Ventura, California, October 1 to November 2, 2022

The New Normal | Jacquard Tapestry | 120 x 118 inches | 2022

In June of 2022 the judicial and political commentator Dahlia Lithwick wrote a piece entitled “The Country Has Finally Broken Me.” The title captured the exhaustion and sense of gloom after seeing, in recent years, the erosion of rationality and constructive purpose in the face of virulent irrationality, ghastly gun violence and the aggressive resurgence of ugly bigotry of every sort. But this, Lithwick laments, is “what life is now.” In this “new normal” the long held dream of an “arc of history” bending evermore toward justice seems suddenly and sadly quaint. Worse still, this disheartening new

Untitled (Umbrellas) | Oil on Panel | 60 x 42 inches | 2022

Untitled (Chairs) | Oil on Panel | 60 x 42 inches | 2022

These paintings reverse the common moralism in Western Art of the “Memento Mori.” In such pictures images of an earthly paradise - Arcadia - or of material luxury and voluptuous decadence - the Vanitas - are undercut by a scolding reminder of inevitable corruption and death. 

In contrast these pictures show a context of disfunction, social chaos, destructive nature and exhausted myths that is countered by an image of a simple, uncomplicated beauty. The consoling reminder of the beautiful penetrates the shroud of the dismal “new normal” and animates the drive to persist, to repair, to create.

Nadya Tolokonnikova | Oil on Panel | 16 x 16 inches | 2022

Nadya Tolokonnikova is an artist and musician and a founding member of the Russian anarchist, feminist group Pussy Riot. Following an provocative performance by the group in 2012 in the Moscow Cathedral she was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. Her time in prison was marked by a long series of physical abuses and a hunger strike. During her incarceration Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience. She was released in late 2013 after nearly two years in custody. In 2014 she won the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought. 

Tiny Hands | Oil on Panel | 17 x 14 inches | 2016

The witty slogan appeared in protests following the infamous “Access Hollywood” recordings of Donald Trump bragging about his privilege as a celebrity to freely violate women. During the same 2016 campaign period he had bitterly complained about commentary regarding his diminutive hands. The cat’s head is drawn from a painting by Lucian Freud and symbolizes the target of Trump’s gropings.

Who Would Jesus Bomb? | Oil on Canvas | 96 x 62 | 2004-5

During the run-up to the Iraq War this classic anti-war slogan was widely seen in street demonstrations protesting the disastrous conflict to come. The figure’s pose mimics that of an important and mysterious ancient Babylonian artifact - pre-Christian and pre-Muslim. The so-called “Queen of the Night” escaped the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad during the 2003 war. In response to that event Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, famously shrugged “stuff happens.”

6th St Banner Project - update

 In May, 2022 the 6th St. banners were updated with bilingual text.

6th St. Banners | June 23, 2022

6th St. Banners with updated text

Cielo y Tierra at the Mexican Consulate Oxnard

 An exhibition of work presented at the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard, California.

Consulate Entrance with Tapestry | Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles | 132 x 70 inches | 2021 

Exhibition Poster

Installation view with test tapestries for Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles and Our Lady of Guadalupe

Installation view with three paintings: L to R  Jakelin Caal, Porvenir and Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez
41 x 41 inches - Oil on Paper mounted on Panel - All

Installation view with painting of Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles, 2021 and test tapestry
for Our Lady of Guadalupe made for St. Stephen Deacon and Martyr Church, El Paso, Texas, 2008

Installation view with test tapestries at L and R for figure and portrait detail for Our Lady of the Angels. 2021. 
Center: Portrait of M. | 29.5 x 48 inches | Oil on Canvas | 2022

Opening Night Cinco de Mayo celebrations. May 5, 2022

6th St. Banner Project - Los Angeles

 Three banners mounted above boarded up store fronts on 6th St. in L.A. adjacent to MacArthur Park.