Still Light In Dark Times

The Rose Still Grows - April 1983 - pencil crayon on paper - 20 x 20 in.

 Timesetter - April 1983 - pencil crayon on paper - 20 x 26 in.

Cross - March 1983 - acrylic on canvas - 24 x 36 in.

Worlds Apart

 Different Worlds - Dec 1982 - pencil crayon on paper - 12 x 20 inches

For some reason, ashtrays end up in my work quite a bit....and cigarettes too, even though I don't smoke. They are usually glass ashtrays. I guess I like drawing (or painting) all the reflections. This pencil crayon drawing above holds my first rendition of an ashtray along with an early inkling towards  an interest in candy wrappers. This drawing represents one of those drifting off moments...deep in thought. I am often contemplating the space between being here and not being here and the space between my own concrete eyes and what I am looking at (or what is in front of me) materially-concrete-wise. Confused yet? The space between the body and the being.
    

Judgement - Dec 1982 - acrylic on canvas - 34 x 40 inches

I was going through a lot of questions while painting this one. A lot of religious and spiritual struggle happening in my life at the time. The hand of God and the hand of Lucifer in a tug-o-war for my being.  God has a better grip on things. This painting was the beginning of a series of works of which I only got to a couple of so far.

Out In Space

 The Apartment - 1982 - 14 x 20 inches - pencil crayon on paper

The Apartment is one of my most well known works. It's widely known as Space For Rent, which is what the sign said as I walked by it. One of those surreal twisted moments in taking the the workd space so literally. But even to this day I have an incredibly hard time not seeing SPACE when ever I hear the word.

These next few pieces are variations on.........on what?......a feeling?.....a dynamic? An abstract notion of distance and scale and movement? These are such simple shapes. The first one did not hold my attention as a whole work or a finished work a couple years later when I filled in the whole paper with color. The second one gives me the feeling of floating amongst these two particles. And the third is a more spaceship-ish rendition of the first in a new medium. 

  Particles Chase I - 1982 - 26 x 20 inches - pencil crayon on paper

   Particles Chase II - 1982 - 20 x 26 inches - pencil crayon on paper

   Particles Chase III - 1982 - 15 x 20 inches - enamel on illustration board

 Let Alone - 1982 - 20 x 26 inches - pencil crayon on paper

Okay then. What is happening here? OMGoodness. This was a drawing I did for a friend of mine at the time. This is a terrible photograph and a somewhat poor choice of materials. I really should have used a white sheet of paper instead of black so that the loose leaf sheet pictured here could have been white. I am sure I was influenced here by MCEscher. The part here that I really enjoy is seeing Christ pulling himself off the cross. I have always wanted to do a large painting of that but, it's a bit silly.