Digging Up the Past...In My Garage

Moving things around in the garage, I came across some old college-era drawings, paintings, and prints that I kept. It was funny to go back and look at these things that have rarely seen the light of day since the early 90’s.

It’s especially funny since I’m a completely different person now than I was then, and the imagery I gravitated towards oozed with my youth. With titles like “Angel of Suicide” …What? All that’s missing is my “Question Authority” bumper sticker.

I knew that I wanted to make some kind of statement, but I don’t think I ever knew what that statement was. I just knew what imagery fit the bill - or formula - for cutting edge, music saturated L.A./Long Beach California. But really, it’s very similar to a lot of other statements that you see even among today’s emerging young artists that I see online. And, we thought we were being so avant garde. I just knew that I DIDN’T want to “illustrate” as that was a bad word in the fine arts department. Oh, silly me.

What I do see that is worth anything is the interest in detail, linework, and texture that are a big part of my current work. I just think I took a pretty round-about way of getting here.

I remember that 3-D box face that I had on my wall, the mannequin head with the Mickey Mouse ears, the gas mask…I just can’t for the life of me figure out which apartment that was (I moved several times during my college years).