Art that teaches, words that move, change that lasts.

I’m an artist, a lawyer, a professor, and an author.
But really, I’m an advocate.
I teach through art and fight with words.
I follow the pull of justice.
This is my path. I hope it helps you find yours.

Ink on raw canvas, hung tapestry style. I have a lot of requests for wall-size tree paintings.

A large elephant painting. Ink on canvas. Popular Zoom room background.

An illustrated book on the current fight for reproductive freedom. Available as a Kindle book for download. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1T3N417

Current blog posts are below.

• Defend the Vote

  

  Defend the Vote

  I was invited to submit work for Artists Against Fascism 2026 / REDUX, running May 9 through June 10. (Astoria OR art loft. ) My first piece started with an old 1960s acoustic guitar. A working object. A worn object. A witness. I paired it with a faded U.S. flag and an old window frame painted in battered red. The frame feels like history. Scraped. Weathered. Still standing.

  The setup to the message is “fascists corrupt elections”. The call to action is “Defend The Vote”.

  Woody Guthrie wrote, “This Machine Kills Fascists” on their iconic folk guitar. My version takes a different path. Less violent but still sharp. I’m not calling for destruction. I’m calling for a fight for democracy.

  Defend the vote.

• New large work

  

  I painted these four paintings for a showing at Lewis & Clark Law School. They are ink on raw canvas hung tapestry style. Size 4 feet by 5 feet. The show was part of a program highlighting art as advocacy. The highlight was a presentation by the world-famous animal rights photographer Jo-Anne McArthur.

• Maybe a found object frame?

  I came across this pile of wood from the remodel of the Seaside fire station. I thought, maybe I could use this scrap blocking as a rough frame of a painting.

  

• First Post

  I’ve decided that most of my work should be ink on canvas. It took quite a while to learn how to use ink with a brush on rough, untreated canvas. I like the results I’m getting. What I like even more is the archival quality of ink on canvas. Paper is unforgiving. Canvas lives on nearly forever. Look at this small detail on a 5-foot by 7-foot painting. The shading is just magical. After setting the ink to make the painting archival, I rolled it up. Then, it shipped out in a mailing tube to its new home in Colorado. Russ