I'm in love with this piece.
For me, it encompasses the essence of this series-the collision between the physical and unknowable.
And the paint is taking on a life of its own-I'm almost a slave to the strokes my hand is making.
In a fit of inspiration, I decided to create a thick impasto of glued applique, to give it some textural form. I wanted the form to seem visceral, as if it was materialising from some ectoplasmic matter.
'Full Steam, A Head'
11" x 14
Acrylic on Canvas
I'm pretty pleased with the way this one turned out-I had toyed with the idea of approaching it as a sepia ink drawing on some form of mottled surface, and still may do that at some juncture.
The painted version is raw and meticulous and grimy, and you can almost smell the sulfur.
It has a definite nod to some of the Biodegradable pieces I was doing some years ago, and reminds me a lot of the docklands of Liverpool, but it draws its tenet from the notion of the skull as vessel brimming with an architectural maze spilling toxic pollution.
Its available for $300.
"An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate."
To his Coy Mistress-Andrew Marvell
Happy Anniversary to my Beautiful Wife, Lover and Best Friend
Photo: Artists private collection.
The older I get, the more I realise that the sudden death of someone you know, never lessens with the shock of its magnitude. That's how it was today when I read the status update on Ryan August's Facebook.
Thats the strange, detached way of things these days, no longer does someone sit you down to prepare you for tragic news, you discover it cycling through a 'social network'.
Regardless, the cold hard facts aren't any less tragic, any less revelatory -Ryan died in a car accident on Saturday night.
I wish I could tell you we were tight buddies-I wish I'd had that chance-except the truth is I only knew him through sparodic emails and Facebook, and the fact that he was a great advocate for my work and hundreds of other artists through his splendid zine-'I want your Skull.'
His enthusiasm and passion for the subject, was a cohesive spirit to all the other 'boneheaded' denizens out there, and a singular champion of all things skull related.
The irony of course is, that I received my own copy of the latest issue with my own minor contribution Saturday morning.
An accomplished artist and tatooist in his own right, he touched so many with his vision, but of course the greatest legacy he leaves behind are his wife and son who will miss him more than any of us can imagine.
I discovered this morning that RAW is featuring my art on their home page this week, which is accompanied by an interview. I tried to keep it frothy-it gets tougher to answer 'where do get your inspiration?' without sounding like a scratched record.
