Joe Ray

SKETCHED THOUGHTS…A MINOTAUR AND HIS TEQUILA He wandered around with his tequila and grapefruit drink. Naked in the sun, he smiled & snorted loudly as he walked. He even walked loud. Walking softly was not in his make up- it had always been like this. Ever since his ancestors were villainized by the ancient Greeks, […]

SOMBRA BLANCA…SUEÑOS I’m not convinced all of our shadows are dark composites. Sometimes they have more energy than we give them credit for, we just seem to prefer to think of them as dark, shadowy and somewhat ominous. I’ve decided that they have their own auras. I’m just not sure what that decision leads to,

LAS 3 MUSES: SIRENAS DE MADERA Red thoughts give way to bold & brazen lust. Wet lust… These are 3 Sirenas that I recently painted, which were carved by Luciano Garcia. Luciano is my friend (and fellow artist/paisano) Gennaro Garcia’s father. Luciano is an incredible Santero whose work I admire and was able to get him to carve these

PLAYING WITH LAS SIRENAS…LA SIRENA ROJA I’m not sure when “my thing” with mermaids began. I have no clue, at least not for this lifetime. I’ve always liked the beach, if that has anything to do with anything. I’ve always liked cocos helados on the beach. Maybe that had something to do with it, since

DRINKING WITH EL DIABLO…THE DEVIL’S CAB AND THE DEVIL’S PINOT. I like a good glass of red. Hell, I like the entire bottle. Mostly Pinot but I like Cab also. It depends on my mood and what I’m eating. Wine is a civilized drink, best enjoyed with friends, food and conversation. I’ve never heard of

TACOS CON HUEVOS This piece is a little older and is a limited edition serigraph print produced at Self Help Graphics in East Los. The recent Nopalista movement brought it to mind. Beto immediately thought of Freddy and started to cry because Freddy had been his compa since they were kids chasing putas in the

EL DIABLO’S CHARDONNAY Pepe lay in the tub thinking in an altered manner. He listened to music, holding a remote in one hand and a glass of wine in the other hand… It was then that El Diablo approached him to converse about things. Seems that a few years had passed since they had last

LA PIÑA DE MUERTE The tale of the piña. A few years ago, my friend Flaco, who has been a Court Interpreter for many years, told a group of us the following story. He (Flaco) had some time to kill (no pun intended here) in between his cases in Superior court, so he decided to

SOME CLOWNS SPIT BLOOD…AND OTHER RAMBLINGS ABOUT CHUPACABRAS AND EXORCISMS. I originally saw this written underneath a bridge in large spray painted letters, somewhere between the late 70s and early 1980s. I don’t think I saw it more than twice and I’m not sure where exactly I saw it. But obviously it made quite an

INSPIRATIONS AND LAME ATTEMPTS AT LUNAR SEDUCTION I was recently reminded during Lunar movements, passages and transgressions, etc., that some men try to seduce the moon. I thought we had moved beyond that. Evidently not. Some morons are still trying to seduce the moon, to which the moon merely laughs. At them. Here are 2