Hi

 Hi - September 1983 - acrylic on canvas - 34 x 40 inches

I guess I was in a bit of a devilish mood on this month 30 years ago. (actually for most of the year I think). I used myself as a reference model for this painting. On some level it's a self portrait I guess. Certainly an aspect of myself at the time.

This bottom piece was done after a sketch idea I proposed for a record cover idea. I won't say what band though. I see now that it definitely was not the right direction. But I liked the sketch enough to carry it over to a finalized piece.

Maneater - September 1983 - pencil crayon on paper - 20 x 20 inches

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.

I Am Squared

Ride - Sept1982 - acrylic on canvas - 34 x 38 in.

Ride is an early take I had on the idea of self portraiture. One's identity is not only in the face, but in body language, the clothing and the environment they are placed in. Ride is also about vehicles and with this picture, there is a ride, within a ride, within a ride. Here we have the car (vehicle 1) carrying the body, There is the actual ride taking place in a back seat of a car (vehicle 1), then there is the body (vehicle 2) carrying the mind and soul, and finally the cigarette or roach-carrying substance (vehicle 3). We have a vehicle within a vehicle within a vehicle. The body is going for a ride in the car while the mind is going for a ride in the body. 

   

After Supper - Sept1982 - pencil crayon on paper - 14 x 21 in.

As the potatoe you just ate is churning and divesting, feeding, transforming the particles of your being, you sit there, body as couch and mind as TV.


Go figure, the movie Tron came out in 1982. I loved the simple graphical vision it showed inside a computer game, then voila, we have here an inspired artwork here below. Ah, but look at the mystical vision infused at this intersection and ponder it's deeper significance. How did I get there? Think of numbers, sides, blocks and spaces.

At The Corner Of Seventh And Trinity - Sept1982 - pencil crayon on paper - 7 x 12 in.

Melts In Your Head, Not In Your Hands

Catcher - Aug 1982 -  melted crayon on matt board - 14 x 22 in.

I guess I had a lot of broken crayons......because I melted the bits in a spoon over a candle flame and started drawing pictures with the spoon. Thank goodness I only made two. But the weird thing is that the August of the next year I did some more and the August of the year after that I did some more.

The first one here I took to get framed at the local gallery shop and somebody saw it and ended up buying it. The wizard I gave away as a gift and the ones I did in the following Augusts', I actually still have and I think I've never shown to any body. But next year you'll see them ( and I promise better photos).

One of the ones I did in 1984 I had framed and it was on it's way to a gallery when on route to the car, I left it leaning against a tree while I got more art from the house. When I picked it up again, I had the strangest feeling, as if I was on acid or something because the picture looked really weird in a way that I did not remember it being a minute ago. Then I realized that the image itself was moving!..... I had left it in the hot sun and now the picture was mellllting. Howz that for alchemy, Mr. Wizard?

Wizard - Aug 1982 - melted crayon on matt board - 10.5 x 16 in.