Leaf-ish

Oh come on baby. You know me from before. All the leaves on the trees were calling me then and you laid with me under the Poplars.

...in the daytime when the air is too bright to see stars...

The wind followed me all day that day and I was restless when you left me. I sang and danced at the top of the hill unheard and unseen until they called me home for dinner.

Bliss

Half your face with smooth colored skin in the Cosmos.

Wavy blue hair, resting eyes, no thought. I live you. You breath me. Together we be.

In Bliss

Playing with Kitty

Well before the abstract years this painting kicked off the one painting a day phase. It was the only painting in that phase... ;~>

Mountain

Slow motion frozen

Deep mountain and his sky brother are solid.

Serene

But at twilight the whole trip rewarded me by unveiling the antiquity of peace in a forlorn almost prehistoric place. Small country lake, trees and sky can hardly be differentiated but for the moon hovering at the horizon.

Liquid Flame

Thinning threads of cool colored flame. Thin boil too hot to be solid. Atmospheric pressure bubbling into expansive frenzy never coming back. Flying apart yet cohesive in that all elements are affected.

Arctic Swell

Cold northern swell at sunset. Let me see you just before you burst. A deep volcano is beneath you and I've known it for years. You and I get along great.

Your warm sunset colors blend into to the cool depth of your waters... Your ice flows are melting and once again water air mist and solar heat find ways to communicate.

A beautiful quiet woman lounges in your horizon.

Fruit

Fruit is one of the first paintings I did after learning to indulge in abstract work. I wanted to do a representational piece for a friend to hang in his 'prosperity' corner as feng shui suggests that fruit or images of fruit in this area influence abundance in positive ways.

I used techniques I'd developed in my recent abstract work as well as borrowing from resist techniques I'd learned while studying batik in my early years. The result is this highly textured and luminescent still life that captures the warm vibrancy of summer fruit nestled in cool shadows.

Dezana Paints Faces

After years of drawing and painting figuratively this piece represents the time in my career when I realized my future work would take a new direction. As this self portrait took shape I felt the only way to 'back it' was to pixilate and paint tiny abstract artworks in all the little squares behind me. As I was also experimenting with contemporary quilt art in those years, particularly the bargello method; the piecing together of background squares held significance and seemed a way to integrate my many visual interests.

At the time I found my self so close the the canvas in my oil portrait work that when I started experimenting with large, loose, colorful abstract painting the feeling of freedom overtook me. The abstract squares in the background mimic the symbolic freedom of the American flag via a color inversion of the rectangle in the upper left corner.