Local Paper

There is an article about me, with pictures, in the local paper: here

Mia & Lencho in the River

This is the first painting I did after leaving the circus. I plunged right into figurative imagery after years of making abstract pictures and odd forays across the border of minimalism, coming back with cuttings from their garden to plant in Wolffian dirt.
It is based on a memory of a deep creek that ran between blond hills in the southern inlands of California. There, on a rare day with no shows, I went swimming with my boyfriend, Florencio (Lencho for short). I was just beginning to do paintings about actual places and things, still a bit shy to try and put everything in (like I do now)-thus the spare set design.

The Faramia Duo

This was our double trapeze act, the name being a combination of mine (Mia) and Donna's last (Farina). The tent in the little painting is the Big Apples's but we didn't have that name until we went out on the road with a three ring show on the west coast.
A bit of history in paint...

one-armed handstand on the water

A long time ago I wrote a short story where the ending was this image. It was a science fiction story about a circus performer who works with a show that travels to other planets. With a bit of editing:

From the building I walk down to the sea. I step out onto the water. The clear emerald face meets my foot with a cold tongue. Below swim the creatures of this sea, their clouds the white soles of my feet, and between us my reflection, breaking and reforming with the swells. I walk out far enough to lose sight of land. I am the single vertical on the plane of moving water.
Bending over I see movement in the depths; movement beyond my own liquid face that comes up to meet me. Cautiously I place one hand on the surface and shift weight into that shoulder. The cold wet clasps my fingers. I bend my knees and spring up, all weight coming down through one arm. There, balanced; one armed handstand on the water. A small wave slaps my wrist. Wind blows spray into my face. I taste salt.

Cobysaun Loch & Company

This is an old painting (1983) of a character from a short story I wrote.

This is a portrait, from memory, of a catcher on a show I worked with. He was walking out of the tent, and into the sun, after finishing his act:

Death of Rubin Suarez

Another old painting about the circus. I hadn't realized how many of those I did. This one is about a Mexican circus family that had a horse act. Rubin did a back somersault from one horse to another as they cantered around the ring. He died quite young and suddenly from some sort of brain stroke.