R80o is a working website for writing, visual work, studio notes, fiction, and fragments. Part notebook, part archive.
flannery’s yard Acrylic, watercolor, ink, graphite, and gloss gel on 19”x24” Bristol Late one night in the mid ’80s, while delivering for UPS, I drove into a front yard during a heavy rain and buried the package car up to its axles. I had no phone, no radio, and no practical way to get help. I was on my own. This was Flannery O’connor’s front yard. Well, it was her yard back when she was alive.…
red monster Monsteras look cool and jungle-y. Not so much when bathed in spooky red light from below. This is the Sunday evening scene from my recliner.
fate -5
morning walk asleep morning walk asleep 6 × 6 in. Mixed media assemblage on canvas, June 2026 A white worked field, aged paper, broken wood, and a dried stem form a small object about motion before wakefulness.
big debt energy Big Debt Energy Mixed media collage on wood panel 9 × 12 in. A rooster, an antique Georgia deed, and a torn bank statement collide into a small collage about pride, performance, money, and burden. The piece turns “big dick energy” into “big debt energy”: confidence with the bill still attached.
I've been stuck with this piece for months. Trying to figure out what's next . Aerosmith Toys in the Attic on wood. I've been referring to it as a work in progress, but in truth I was stuck. I liked the idea of taking the album art, lifted from its original cardboard, then embedding it into a piece--and I did that, but couldn't figure where to take it. In a recent hospital stay, with nothing to do…
Related WIP: flannery’s yard Sometime in late November or early December of 1987, I got a UPS truck stuck in Flannery O’Connor’s front yard. That sounds more literary than it was. At the time, I didn’t know jack about Flannery O’Connor. I knew the O’Connor name meant something in Baldwin County (Georgia). There was an O’Connor Road somewhere else in the county, and Andalusia had a historic marker,…
remaining breath remaining breath 2026 Oil pastel, acrylic, antique medical illustration, collage, and mixed media on paper 18 × 24 in. An antique medical illustration is submerged beneath layers of acrylic, oil pastel, and algae-colored staining. The image sits between anatomy and atmosphere—part body, part remnant, part last signal.
“It’s good to be me.” At two months, just in from the universe, you are the center of the world. Each day you learn something and your world expands. What a beautiful day yesterday was and what a remarkable day tomorrow will be.
found after the accident
“um… yes. hi. we’re here for the populist uprising. we were told there’d be a populist uprising here today.“ Close up Mixed media on paper
calculus Rockin a bunch of kidney stones earlier this month.
Liberty Tavern’s Floor
Retail, 1976 The new Macon Mall had just opened. It was the largest mall in the southeast, largest spectacle in my world and it was a mile and a half from my house. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. The sights, the smells and the bustle. It was all action. It was cocaine for an eleven year old.
Big Values | Lovely Colors | Choice Big Values Lovely Colors | Choice 2026 Acrylic, found advertisement collage, oil pastel, and mixed media on paper 18 × 24 in. A vintage Sears fashion advertisement is partially buried beneath scraped acrylic, staining, and layered color. Sales language promising “Lovely Colors,” “Choice,” and “Big Values” remains visible, but the image has been worn down into…