Oh My I

Self Portrait - August 1983 - pencil crayon on paper - 20" x 26 "

I guess this is when I lost my eyes..... metaphorically speaking.  I never was able to focus on any one thing (style, medium, subject etc ) for an extended time. You can see in this posting that in the few months shown here, that I am all over the place. Is it all just about early artistic career experimentation?  I don't think so. I'm just so interested in so much. Curious about how it all works. Excited about experimentation. As much as I would like to focus in on an area for a year or two or 5 or 10, I just can't.
It's been 30 years of these shinannigans! I'm always exploring the new(for me) and always going back to what I've done and continued unravelling those threads. But throughout all of this, I like to think that my third eye is still focussed on the big picture.
  

 Futuremate - August 1983 - pencil crayon on paper - 20" x 26"

Lander - August 1983 - melted crayon on matt board - 14" x 22"

Tiger Face - July 1983 - pencil crayon on paper - 20" x 20"

Eye Of Spades - June 1983 - lino cut ink on paper

with hand pencil crayon color - 11" x 14"  

Eye Of Spades - June 1983 - lino cut ink & pencil crayon on paper - 

edition of 6, each with different backgrounds - 11" x 14"

June 1983 - ink in paper - 3" x 13"

Here above is the first logo design I did for a company. All hand drawn and inked. This logo appears on the poster below which also happens to have been my first poster assignment. I had not looked at this poster for almost 30 years. I think I never liked it for some reason. It's not great but I do like it now!

The Tubes - June 1983 - ink on paper - 15.5" x 21.5" 

May-June 1983 - Assorted Pins - acrylic or pencil crayon on acrylic base or matt board 

After seeing the hand painted pins of Winnipeg artist Margaret Hartley, I was inspired to make my own.  I did copy her Rocky Horror lips though....they were so good.

Man Without Wings

Man Without Wings - Dec 1981 - 20 x 22 inches - pencil crayon, ink on paper

     I think I would have to say at this point, that he actually does have wings! I am speculating now, that at the time of this picture, the artist didn't quite realize this fact. The hand is obviously the hand of God, a God of the universe, whom happens to be holding, perhaps lifting up and certainly not clutching or grasping, so why the tears?

      If I am to wager a guess now as to the meaning of the picture as it relates to the creator of this work, I would have to say that it is of an angel of God stuck in, not wanting to be in, a material body, and hence the sorrow and tears. I personally did feel at odds in this world, or perhaps just in this time. As if I did not belong, and could not understand it's workings and questioned what everything was and what it meant. 30 years later I am still trying to figure it out, as I suppose most of us are, but I do feel that I am getting closer.

     

     At the time of this work I was about to turn 18 years old. I had graduated high school that previous June and was now employed as a graphic production artist at a cresting manufacturer.

 

IMMORTAL

Immortal - 1981 - pencil crayon& ink on paper

This is the only work I did during October, and the next work does not happen until December. I guess I was busy with work and my girlfriend. But how could this be? I must have done some other drawings. I'll have to delve deeper into the stu. As for this work, Immortal, I have nothing exciting to say about it except, "that sure is some perspective happening on those arms". Too many comic books perhaps. Here I am still working on the black paper which will dominate most of my future pencil crayon works untill year 2000.

Out of Space, Out of Time, Out of Mind

 

It was September of 1981 and It felt really strange. The It being me really, but it was something else larger than me. The strange was a feeling that I get, even to this day,  although it has diminished somewhat. So after 13 years of having to start school every September, this year I was at home. I had graduated in June, I had quit my job at KFC also in June so that I could have the summer off, but now here I was left with this strange feeling that I needed to do SOMETHING.

Creating art was something I could do! I had some ideas for some paintings but I also had these Prismacolor pencil crayons that I could be using. I also had a whack of black paper that I originally bought back in grade 10 for an optical illusion assignment. (We did not have art offered in grade 11 or 12......go figure) Since at the time I thought space is black, if I used this black paper, it would save me a lot of work.

Out of Space, Out of Time, Out of Mind - 20 x 26 in. - pencil crayon & white ink

Beyond Human Knowledge - 20 x 26 in. - pencil crayon & white ink

Hands of Creation - 20 x 26 in. - pencil crayon & white ink

This picture is one of my most known works probably because it is the image that is most out there in the world in the form of posters. I got the posters made about a year after the drawing with the encouragement of my colleague at work (yes I did start a job in that fall after graduating,)  and after I cashed in the insurance policy for money to get the posters printed.  

The Hitchhiker - 20 x 26 in. - pencil crayon, acrylic & white ink

I did not know about the book The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy at the time I did this drawing.