"from time to time I need a steak,
medium rare,
no potato, no salad,
just the juicy essence of meat."

About the Other Side

I would like to address the "Other Side "for a moment. This is where I can stretch my "legs" or fingers if you will, I believe that drawing is the essence of art. Being able to pluck images from my mind and play with them on paper, control the shapes, add texture and give it some guts (good strong value) is something that gives me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction.

The drawings that I have done were inspired by an article I read on an illustrator by the name of Lee Brown Coye. Lee produced images for various pulp magazines in the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties that had a slightly warped view of life. There were magazines such as "Weird Tales" and book covers for H.P. Lovecraft, "3 Tales of Horror".

Mr. Coye's images were in black and white, done on scratchboard. They were drawn in a very expressive way, with a great deal of care taken in the design of positive and negative interaction. The proportions that were used to depict his characters were very exciting. Subject matter was probable not to everyone's tastes, but to someone like myself who as a kid loved "Famous Movie Monsters" magazine and is a great fan of anything that is written by Stephen King, they were inspiring

I began drawing compositions that were purely for my own delight, I did not wish to draw anything too violent or with much gore, there's plenty of that to go ground, but images that were inspired by my imagination, my observations, my view of seeming innocent things that had a slightly "disturbing" twist. Some people may consider these as low brow or demented humor and they are! I think they're extremely enjoyable. The drawings were never intended to be politically correct; I've done that till my pancreas hurts, but I did want the drawings to evoke a reaction. Sometimes there is an uncomfortable chuckle followed by a low murmur of "oohh-jeeze-ohma-gad!" Perfect, just what I was looking for. Mostly I do get a lot of giggles, that's the fun part, again! Anyone viewing my drawings will need to get past the first shock and then study them. These are not quick reads and I never planned for them to be that. I put a lot of focus on the drawing, the textures and the mark making. I do not do any rough drafts or warm up drawings but rather I set down and let the mind wonder. I like the fact that you can see the construction of the work. I want people to see all of the work that goes into one of my drawings. The design and use of positive and negative imagery and pureness of my drawings is something that is there in the final piece.

I hope that you won't misjudge me because of these little bits of my happy dark side. I still enjoy creating "happy" images for children, but I look at it this way, I love chocolate, but not for every meal. From time to time i need a steak, medium rare, no potato, no salad, just the juicy essence of the meat.