St.Francis

St.Francis is one of those icons that seems to inhabit interesting places for me. Claire told me a lot about him and how he would live outside and tend to the animals. He seemed like such an interesting and gentle man.

So the thing that fascinates me about this statue of him is the stark, almost Leninesque depiction. I'm intrigued by the duality of spiritual leaders. Jesus is often painted as the kindest, softest being ever to have lived, but almost every story in the bible has him scorning non believers with such intensity.

So with that, I needed an animal that would reflect the intensity of St.Francis. The rhino seems to be charging standing still. Lyrics from some old dub song keep coming to mind: "He is calm like a lion"

El Haj

This was the first piece in an informal series of three.
The series is inspired by the complex compositions and exotic iconography of middle eastern and Asian money.



The white area on the left is similar to the watermark security feature of currency. I was interested in the way the negative space had to be worked into the design. Arguably, I could have done a better job. I had trouble working with the almost square format.

Manekisattva

Claire and I went on a 10 day meditation retreat at the start of the year. It consisted of around 10 hours a day of meditation starting at 4am, absolutely no talking, and intense back pain. After a few days without books, radio, music, internet, television or conversation, I began to start seeing things in my head. This image came to me on the seventh day I think.

To me, this piece is hilarious - a maneki neko as a bodhisattva. Not sure if anyone else is getting it.

Anyways - the drawing was done on fancy arches paper that I had to rip myself. It was a real pain to draw on because I didn't want to go very dark and I am used to working in much more forgiving mediums, like wood, that hide your mistakes and shine when you add white.

Heisei Era

A departure from the old and rustic.
I wanted to play with more angular and jarring shapes and colors.
The building is blue ball point pen and the sign and woman are from a printer.

The red at the bottom would be a Chinese signature seal that I hand carved from a piece of soapstone, but the watercolor texture has rendered it illegible.



If you could hear it, this piece would sound like the little things that happen in a city..but far away and echoey. Footsteps, people talking at a bus stop..nothing too exciting.
Very Quiet.

Vestigial remains

I showed some work at the 3rd Vestal show after vowing to put something out into the world in 2008. It was a fun show and people seemed to like the pieces. I will try to post individual pictures of the work soon - it's kinda tricky to photograph it well.

Oh also - that Ferris Bueller caduceus shirt gave me super powers throughout the night.

蟹

I've been getting more and more fascinated with watercolor...possibly since playing Okami. This is the closest I'll get to a Japanese fishing village for a while at least.

Tufted Swamp Grackle

Scott had been working on a bird series so the bird book was out. Can you believe he had been putting in all that effort on Lanar Falcons and Red Hawks when he could have been getting chicks with this specimen!

Opium

Nothing special here, just some scribbles. Try to find Claire in it.

Smokemon

My sister and her husband and I have been exchanging japanese lucky kitties (Maneki Neko) on holidays. I think it's hilarious. The lucky kitty in the corner is one I got Claire.

Anyways - I had fun with the depth on this drawing but I regret not following it more. I wish I would have drawn a neon sign following the same angle as the hip bone - then I could have drawn perpendicular lines coming out from under the sign.

Oh well - the next sketch should have some more depth.

Pachyderm

I drew this around 6 years ago I think. I gave it to my dad, who has always had a fascination with elephants. I suppose I recently inherited it. It's nice to have on my shelf.

Skull Tablature

Here's a drawing I've been meaning to complete for a while now. This was meant as an exercise to help me get comfortable with the Wacom tablet.
I could probably spend more time darkening and refining this but i got anxious to throw some color in there and play with texture.

I wish my sketchbook had layers.

If anyone wants to color it - I can upload the psd.

Over the Hills

Another night in the groupboard. When things are chaotic enough, subjects start to emerge. My friend Sam used to play this game in highschool called "Find the Piggies". He would make sheets of paper covered with dots and hand them out early in the day - the idea being, you find pigs in the midst of the dots - like constellations. It was interesting how the pigs always bore the stylistic traits of the artists.