I've always enjoyed combining elements that don't typically belong together to make a statement. I'm not sure where that visual rebellion came from, but it was a constant throughout my early years of learning to draw, and it remains with me today. Call it tension, friction, or an obstacle that must be overcome. That struggle is necessary for me to create something fresh and new. Something I like.
There is a visual dopamine hit when you see things that don't belong together, actually put together in some intelligent way. It's a surprise, a double whammy. Musicians, filmmakers, and actors do it. The shock of the new. Once I learned how to draw, I could realize these ideas in my head and transfer them to a surface without much frustration. I become quite deft in my drawing ability. So I drew hard and often. But juxtaposing visuals was always in my DNA.
I worked on Sunday editorial illustration commissions, for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner in the eighties. I couldn't get enough of it. I found myself transforming my fine art training into something more applied, like editorial illustration. Many of the drawings during that time were commissioned. As I began to think more like an illustrator, the vast cosmos of editorial ideas started popping up on my radar and in my head, ultimately making it onto paper, usually with a pencil or fine Rapidiograph pen.
I suppose this work can be viewed as a portrait, not only of my artistic journey but also of myself—an ongoing struggle between creation and chaos. This was the second time in my life that I had tried to quit that bad habit that Jerry and I shared.
I guess this is actually just a portrait...of me.