Bears in the City

"Bears in the City"
Acrylic on canvas panel

I painted these for two of my best friends, Dave and Brittney. They just moved to Marietta, and this was a welcome/birthday gift for the two of them. They are very cool people and I wish them the best in everything. I haven't worked on any art in a while, and they were both very good inspiration for me to get back into the game, Thanks guys!
These were painted on small panels, with pre-stretched, gessoed canvas stretched across. I did the background wet in wet, and continuously misted it as I was working so that the final result would look almost like it was water color. The buildings were painted using the back end of the brush in wet paint. Soon as it was dry, I painted the bears on top using thicker layers. I actually didn't mix any medium in this time, It was all just acrylic paint and water. I figured that the pre-gessoed canvas would bleed enough waxy medium to keep it glossy.

Lungs

"Lungs"
Acrylic and pastel on canvas 24x24

I've been waking up with asthma nightly. It's something I have struggled with my whole life. People take their physical mechanism for granted, and I painted this to confront the viewer with their own biological functionality.

Self Portrait

"Self Portrait"
Pastel on Paper Bag

Don't ask me, I just draw this stuff...

The Nature of Response

"The Nature of Response"
Acrylic and Pastel on Board

Why do we respond to stimulus the way that we do? I drew this after having a bad day at work, I had gotten in an argument with a co-worker, and I was extremely upset at what I viewed as a lack of control over my own anger. I wanted to explore the process of cause and effect. The faces are our emotional responses and the figure is an invader who chooses to pull things out of us, destroying the order that we have constructed.

Portrait of Jill and Lexie

"Portrait of Jill and Lexie"
Acrylic on Illustration Board

My ladies, who I loooooove very much....This was a fun exercise. I wanted to experiment with a very limited pallet, consisting of just complimentary colors. A la prima.

Diligence

"Diligence"
Pastel on Board

This was an early experiment in automatic drawing. I think it represents the state of mind I was in when I started working full time hahaha!

The Elephant in the Room

"The Elephant in the Room"
Acrylic and Pastel on Board

This was an automatic drawing, I think it represents the urge to tell somebody something that they are not going to like to hear.

The Zen of Evolution

"The Zen of Evolution"
Acrylic and Pastel on Board

This is about the nature of personal change. What inspires us to change? Is it a process that happens as a result of our environment, or is it a choice? Passive or active? Are we lured by desires, motivated by the illusion of progress, drawn by the combination of seeing and thinking? Or is change something that we have no choice in experiencing?

Hidden Tranquility

"Hidden Tranquility"
Acrylic and Pastel on Board

Pain can be a terrible burden to carry. Sometimes we have to sit on our negativity and enjoy the beautiful things in life, however small they are. Zen in a tornado.

Perfect Moment

"The Perfect Moment"
Acrylic an Pastel on Board

Obviously, this is about sex. But here I am attempting to describe the human experience by removing the humans. We are left only with the emotions, the joining of forms, and the phenomenological experience.

The Fundamental Flaw in the Theory of Reason

"The Fundamental Flaw in the Theory of Reason"
Pastel and Acrylic on Board

There exists a discrepancy between what we say, what we see and what we think. How then, can we actually know reality? Is there even a way to know? All experience is subjective. Sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing---all are subjective, qualitative talents. Science exists as an extension of these senses. It is the relationship between the external and the internal that defines reality; The conversation between the object and the objectifier. Reality cannot be described accurately without this mental coitus between form and perception.

The Bones of Childhood

"The Bones of Childhood"
Pastel on Board

This was the funeral for my youth, and the only people present were my new found adult senses of Servitude (the robot), my Inner Child, and Diligence (the ant).

Tomorrow's First Edition

"Tomorrow's First Edition"
Acrylic on canvas

We are grounded in a block of immobility, caught up in our own fears about the future. We have become blind to the reality before us, and as a result our external reality is BECOMING what we read and what we fear. It is a self-fulfilling form of prophecy. I based the composition on the old religious idol reliquary images, because of the almost pious attitude that some hold to the media. Our mode of discourse has become our model of reason, a new dark age brought about by an over exposure of information.