FACES AND NARRATIVES
Anxious Woman With Gray Squares, acrylic and collage, 2020
Lately I have, for not particular reason, been doing a lot of faces. I think I became enamored with the isolated face when, a couple years back, I did a raft of quick ink drawings based on the comic-page character Jiggs. These were freely brushed efforts that ignored features and their distinctive shapes. A snarl of a line, a blot, a spin of pigment could make up a face. You didn't need much: a few dots, an arc and dash or two and the brain finds a face.
This led to monoprints of characters that seemed to demand a narrative swinging vaguely around them. They got names -- Small Louie, Mister Diggs -- and then when the women arrived the characters took on more specific role like smokers or in a couple of cases "molls' with smoking guns.
This led to monoprints of characters that seemed to demand a narrative swinging vaguely around them. They got names -- Small Louie, Mister Diggs -- and then when the women arrived the characters took on more specific role like smokers or in a couple of cases "molls' with smoking guns.
Man Fantasizing About Balthus' 'Alice,' acrylic and collage, 2020
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LEFT: Bust of Ricardo, oil on canvas, 2019 |
Jiggs, oil on canvas, 2018
The 'Jiggs" theme led to numerous drawings and a handful of big-sheet monoprints in variations on Jiggs' visage. Always present is the cigar, wafting its smoke into the air, the ill-fitting hat, and the vest and tie.
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Mister Diggs, ink, 2019
Left: Mammary Thoughts, sketchbook drawing, 2020
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The 'molls" may not be that nice but they do exert an independence, be it in their smoking habits or their utter disdain for others who happen to be in their purvey.
Smoking Woman With Potted Plant, acrylic, 2020
Moll With Smoking Gun and Fruit Bowl, acrylic on canvas, 2020
Left: Christ, acrylic over archival pigment print, 2018 |
Bust of Ricardo, acrylic, 2019
Moll With Smoking Gun and Dresser, acrylic, 2020
The circle in Christ's head does not represent a bullet hole, as some might think, but rather is part of a Christian visual fantasy that sees significant religious images hidden within the Savior's face and in the folds of the robe. |