Burma-Thailand Border

During the 1980s I crisscrossed the Burma-Thailand border (illegally) repeatedly, as I investigated the Burma military's human rights violations and learned about the oppression of ethnic peoples in Burma. I visited a number of the armed groups then fighting the forces of Burma's dictatorship. These are sketches I did in those areas. They can serve as illustrations for my first book, "Burmese Looking Glass" (Grove/Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993.) Shan, Palaung, Mon, Karen, Lisu, Karenni and Tavoyan people are depicted here.

Bali

The one time I visited Bali was in 1995, when I met up with my friend Dean Bishop, who had been there off and on for many years. I did more sketches during a Balinese dance performance, but I gave them all to the dancers; this is the only one I kept. The other sketches are of the enchanting Tanah Lot temple, on a little island.

Montana Cows

In the fall of 1995, I spent a couple of months on a small ranch belonging to my mother-in-law to be, in Helena, Montana. One afternoon I stood on the dirt road to do watercolor sketches of some cattle grass-feeding on a nearby property. A neighbor drove by in his pickup truck and leaned out the window, "What are ya doin'? Drawin' them cows?" Luckily I had one that actually looked like a cow to show him (some of these look more dog or bear than bovine.)