This is an ongoing series of work inspired by a lifetime of watching my father draw. He is always doodling on scraps of paper, or writing elaborately illustrated letters, or designing intricate Halloween decorations for the front window of my childhood home. He is one of he best drawers I know, especially as he is self-taught and draws solely out of a love for the medium and a need to communicate.
I start these drawings out by giving my father paper and telling him to draw whatever he would like, using whatever medium he wishes. Then I get the drawings, in various stages of completion, and I work on top them. I try to treat them as found surfaces, reacting to the marks, colors, and subject matter he has chosen. Psychologically it can be difficult as sometimes I erase or obliterate what he drew through marks and value. It makes me think of Rauschenberg erasing the DeKooning, there is that air of transgression of the child destroying what the parent has done.
Our subject matter is extremely different. Usually he draws very masculine things, airplanes, tanks, soldiers, and ships. I am always drawing feminine things, flowers, plants, dresses and patterns. The interest lies in trying to make these disparate visual images work together. Thematically the drawings develop into nature versus machine.
Bête Noire, 2008, 6’ x 6’
Acrylic on cut plywood & wall
Tank & Spiders, 2008
Acrylic on Canvas, 16” x 20”
Birds & Planes, 2008
Acrylic on Canvas, 16” x 20”
Birds Watching
2007
Bones
2007
Turtle Race
2007
Art School
2007
Bird War
2007
Weapons
2007
Revenge of the Insects Over Jean-Louis Farbe, 2007
Homework
2007
dad daughter drawing no. 1
2006
dad daughter drawing no 2
2006
dad daughter drawing no 3
2006
