Ways of Dying Series
Birds of Pray 🙏
Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel - 8' x 4'
This painting honors Greg Dubs, PhD. my boss in a research study in the 1980s testing a promising AIDS medication—which failed to be effective against the virus.
Greg was very close to Native American culture so I wanted to include Native American imagery. I came across the custom of “sky burial” in which some tribes placed their dead on a platform upon which the body decomposes with the help of scavengers.
I sketched birds of prey but they felt too violent. What came to mind were mourning doves, a bird I’ve always loved in it’s gray humility and mournful coo.
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Bon Voyage: the Death of Tom Mabie
Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel - 40" x 36"
The painting portrays Tom Mabie, a man living with AIDS who chose to end his life on his own terms. He invited me to his "going away party," where a cake was inscribed with the words "Bon Voyage."
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Don't Go My Friend: The Death of Jack Walsh, MD
Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel - 36''x 27''
This painting is an homage to my friend John Walsh. John was thwarted in his life-long ambition of becoming an MD and had to make peace with the title of PA (Physician Assistant.)
But in the early 1990’s he moved to the island nation of Granada where he earned his MD. He was so proud to have achieved his goal, and had just started a residency, when he was struck with full blown AIDS. He moved back to his beloved San Francisco where he died six months later.
I arrived at the hospital soon after his death. The image is true to the scene I found – his dear friend embracing him and repeating over and over again, “Don’t go my friend, don’t go my friend.”
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No More Pollution; No More Somalia: The Death of Peter Ryan
Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel - 54" x 48"
This painting is an homage to my friend Peter Ryan who died of AIDS at the age of 31. I arrived at the hospital shortly after his passing. His lover Susan had wheeled him into the garden on a beautiful sunny day and the idea for the painting came soon after.
The title of the painting, No More Pollution: No More Somalia are the exact words Peter spoke upon realizing he would not be cured, expressing that he would no longer be troubled by the problems of this world.
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