For a long time I’ve been drawn to the work of abstract expressionist artists like Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, and especially Clyfford Still. I never get tired of looking at the work of Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. Abstract expressionism is nontraditional and mostly nonrepresentational, but it is heavy with attitude and emotion. How can we not be soothed and pacified by the color fields of Rothko or agitated by  Motherwell’s Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110.

One of the great joys of bicycling in San Diego is the opportunity to see up close the hundreds of eucalyptus trees scattered all over the county.  They are the great gift to the world from the Australia and nearby islands. The bark of any eucalyptus is a expressionist canvas that changes with the seasons. Mostly what I see in the skin of a eucalyptus is definitely nonrepresentational, it just is... and its being is enough to justify my attention to it.  Sometimes however I see an image on a eucalyptus tree that reminds me of something.  Today between the great fountain and Park Boulevard in Balboa Park I saw something on a tree that reminded me of Clyde Yoshida’s dog pictures. That’s my picture for the day. The ones below could be paintings by Clifford Still or Robert Motherwell.