In down town Porterville, I will have work as part of the current Porterville Art Association show. Our gallery is located at 152 N. Main St.http://portervilleart.org/news.htmhttp://portervilleart.org/news.htmshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1
    I retired in 2003 from Porterville College where I taught art and art history for thirty years. I’m now enjoying the life of a full time artist living high in the forest, sorting out all the ideas, new media and technologies I was never able to explore while teaching.             
    This is very challenging, and great fun. Being “old and obsolete” offers a pleasing freedom to do anything, any way I want... like glitter paintings. Also being “classically trained” in my art forms I tend to be more of an “Outsider” now in the current fashion of the contemporary art scene... more Fun.
    I still work in all those areas and disciplines I taught: drawing, computer imaging, photography, head sculpture, along with new explorations in painting. This wide variety offers an abundant list of possibilities each new day.
    If you are a former student, do realize I had the best possible career anyone could ask for, Thanks! The visual mischief I play with now is because of you. 
     I’m currently a member of Corridor 2122 Gallery in Fresno. Please come by if your around for ArtHop (first thursday each month 5-8) and say hello. 
    T.http://www.corridor2122.com/shapeimage_3_link_0
Born in Santa Monica Calif., 1943.
Grew up in Lancaster, 1949-1964.
Damn wind! 
Developed some learning disabilities... while playing with lead.
tested retarded in high school, but I could run fast. 

Worked at North American Aviation, XB-70 
That was an airplane.

Antelope Valley College, 1961-1964
Ran track, played football, a poor student... mostly I rode a Triumph TR-6 through the desert.
I tried to drop out but a friend working in the registrars office put me right back in.

Fresno State. BA Art, 1967.
During registration, a small random act of kindness by a stranger gave me an opportunity to create my life,
   I went from being a life long total “fuck-up” to an art dept. star in three days.

Drafted U.S. Army 1968. Commissioned 2Lt. Artillery, Fort Sill.
Advisor Viet Nam, Five man “Mobile Advisor Team”, Mat 69, Delta. 1969-1970. 
Always moving, we worked and lived with “irregular forces” , my uniform was mixed,...
 we were at the end of the line... became the biggest scrounger in the Delta, 
personal weapons were a “grease gun”, an M-79, a 50cal. and an old worn out 81mm mortar, 
I was very good with the mortar..., and walked with a child on every finger,

I was not wounded, nor killed... but lost what was my “life” anyway.

Fresno State again, Masters program, MA Art 1972, emphasis on drawing.

Study abroad, Florence Italy 1972-1973.
GI bill,... the VA owed me! 
I discovered who I was...

Porterville College 1973-2003.
Taught: Art Hist., Drawing, Figure Drawing, Head Sculpture, Art Fundamentals,
Photography, Air Brush, Computer Graphics, Summer Abroad Programs,
Field Studies Landscape Photography. Plus: Gallery Director, Division chair,
Photo Lab supervisor, Mac lab supervisor, all around repair man, shade-tree physiologist, van-bus driver
along with the Art Hist. sections at local High School Humanities classes which I still do today.

Retired since 2003... see above for reason.
(retirement is very cool!!)

Returning to PC as “Part Time Slime” 8 years later.
(they’ve never heard of me...)

Started “Slate Mountain Studio” in Camp Nelson, 2003.

Personal influences:
Family, Friends, Teachers, travel, Florence, Art Hist., the B-36, SP cab forward locomotives, 
Beull Motorcycles, A quad 50... thunder and lightning,... light, space, color, texture, my ADHD,.. St. Francis, 
The man of P’o, Ithaca, Keith Jarrett, Bocelli, Copland, Mozart... Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Sister Michelle: The concepts of Truth, honesty, sincerity, compassion, trust, integrity, and forgiveness... 
Humanism,... all the basic ethics-spiritual stuff. The serenity of Zen. The “M” theory. History...
Macs, Epson, Photoshop, Nikon and Leica,
Michelangelo, Rothko, Matisse, Vincent, Klimt, Ruaschenberg, Ingres, Mucha, Chagall, Durer, and many others...
unseen forces, beauty, nature, clouds, sunsets, stars, good books, great art, students that tried, ...laughter, the gods.

Favorite word: “hey...” Least favorite word: “Spelling...”

Some favorite movies:
Local Hero, Dave, The Big Lobowski, Lost in Translation, The Quiet Man, Walk in the Sun, Wind, Motorcycle Diaries,
Kingdom of Heaven,... the beginning of Gladiator, The Amateurs, Wind and the Lion, Stranger than Fiction,
Out of Africa, Ferris Buellers Day Off, Michael, Forrest Gump, Get Shorty, Raising Arizona, Empire of the Sun.

Hobbies:
Riding one of ten motorcycles, Forza, F-1 2011, designing digital X-Planes, potted plants, reading, travel,
building 1/72 scale aircraft models, watching stars on my boat, walking a beach,
ultimate spaghetti, ultimate margaritas, ultimate wines with Griffin, getting “lost”,... great friends.

Some interesting moments:
Birth of my daughter, climbing the great pyramid of Khufu, climbing down the Great Wall, 
sunrise on the Acropolis alone, the Sistine Chapel alone, King Tuts tomb alone, hugging the Rondonini Pieta,... Dachau, 
sinking the base plate of an 81mm mortar barrel-deep the night I got pissed off,
Bickle looping a sail plane in a rain storm finding the sun, calling Lt. Griffin on General Staff at Ft. Sill,
 finding Kathy the nicest most brilliant most beautiful person I’ve ever known, 
Point Lobos with a handicapped student, Camping Field trips with Walter, Sunset at the Forum,
landing on the TV Mash helipad, feeling the trenches in France, explaining to an Egyptologist how to climb a pyramid,
saving my ass by walking out into the sights of a Cobra on a gun run and flipping him off... 
scooter rides through Tuscany, marooned in Paris, Doris calling the president of TWA Airline, 
Donatello on a small street in Florence, getting lost in Rome my students bringing me home, 
getting lost in VN and The World coming to get us, 
standing at the counter at PC the moment they needed an Art teacher,
 blizzards in Yosemite, the day All war stopped in Soc Son,
sand storms in Death Valley, “going home” in Japan, coming back from VN, 
a blind bird tapping at my door...twice,  a July Harley run through a blizzard on top of Yosemite,
invited to Este by the State Railway of Italy while they retrieved our passports, 
painting Easter eggs with David Hockney, Violin echos in the Uffizi Courtyard,
 the Questura, hunting Etruscan tombs in the wild, lunch at Antinori’s, 
hunting in Vietnam, wandering away in Tokyo, Pescia...,
going down a cliff upside down and backwards wondering why I have my foot on the brake, 
the “great kidnapping” at the daycare center,...drove over a mine that did not explode.
riding motorcycles in the snow, making a gallery out of a college restroom, 
my entire Life flashing before my eyes in an instant, hitchhiking in Sardinia,
my command reveille at 0730 with 703 troops, summer drawing in Florence,
hitting a deer in a turn at high speed on a motorcycle... at night, 
watching my Dad fix a VW with a paper clip.
touched with pure kindness by a grieving angel....
a life time later a “soul mate” reappeared walking the same path.
...getting older, on my way to Ithaka,
learning that life is a journey, maybe even a test... with a full spectrum of experiences and emotions.
 ...and its very important to show up and try.Painting.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n3n2Ox4Yfkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqK1JJOFxw&feature=emailhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XQveO4RlKghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8vJ_lMxQIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kieyW-FKyQshapeimage_5_link_0shapeimage_5_link_1shapeimage_5_link_2shapeimage_5_link_3shapeimage_5_link_4shapeimage_5_link_5shapeimage_5_link_6
To the Books page.Books.html

A short Bio...

This site is dedicated to all those students who showed up...

Photo D. Griffin.