People and portraits

Ballerina: Vencerem (We shall overcome)

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Ballerina: Vencerem (We shall overcome) was produced for the 13th annual Art al Career (Street Art) fair in Picanya, Spain. It is organized by the Dones de Picanya (Women of Picanya in Valencian) . Picanya suffered significant losses in the floods in October 2025. There is still much work needed there: houses, bridges, businesses and much more. The metro is still not working.

This painting is about the overcoming the obstacles on the path to recovery, symbolized by her dancing on the fender of a wrecked car. The lettering in the painting is actually straight. Getting a perfect photo was not possible in my studio.

Ballerina dones de picanya final
Ballerina: Vencerem (We Shall Overcome) 1.8 x 1.4 meters, property of Dones de Picanya (lettering camera distorted)
Balleriana dones de picanya final with me

Ballerinas, three watercolor paintings (version 2)

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Studies for a larger painting. Images updated. Abstract

ballerina in abstract background 1
Ballerina in Abstract Background 1, 21 x 30/8.3 x 11.7″ watercolor
ballerina in abstract background 2
Ballerina in Abstract Background 2, 21 x 30/8.3 x 11.7″ watercolor
ballerina in abstract background 3
Ballerina in Abstract Background 3, 21 x 30/8.3 x 11.7″ watercolor

Margaret Walker, African American poet

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Margaret Walker (1915-1998) was a highly accomplished woman. She was at college student at the young age of 15 when she begin writing poetry. In 1936 she joined the Federal Writers’ Project in Chicago, befriending Richard Wright. BA from Northwestern 1935, MA and Ph D U of Iowa 1945. Her dissertation was published as a novel, Jubilee 1966.

margaret walker portrait conte
Dr. Margaret Walker, Conte pencil, 32 x 50 cm/ 12.5 x 19.5″ on gray pastel paper

Walker was the first African American poet to receive the Yale Younger Poets Prize, penning For My People 1942. She published This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems , October Journey and Prophets for a New Day .

In 1949 she joined the faculty at Jackson State College. She returned to the University of Iowa for her doctoral studies and received a PhD in 1965. In 1968 Walker founded the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People at Jackson State College.

As what became the Margaret Walker Center, she organized the 1971 National Evaluative Conference on Black Studies and the 1973 Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival.

In 1979 she published On Being Female, Black, and Free, a collection of personal essays, and Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius.

Umberto Ecco

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umberto ecco conte
Umberto Ecco, Conte pencil, 32 x 50 cm/ 12.5 x 19.5″

Umberto Ecco (1932-2016) was a medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. He is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, made into the movie with Sean Connery playing the leading role. The novel is a tour de force of intricacies of medieval theology. Foucault’s Pendulum pokes fun, again intricately, at conspiracy theory, while Prague Cemetery revisits the plots of the Risorgimento. Another of my heroes. He taught at the University of Bologna, which we visited along with the Focault pendulum then swinging in the cathedral. Portrait in Conte.