Blast from the Past

A blast from the past. As We Dragged Our Panic Up And Down The Riverbed is a landmark piece for me. The one that introduced me to ArtMilwaukee, and the piece that kicked off my new direction.

Before this, I think you could separate my work (generally) into paintings and drawings. My drawings were odd illustrations of cartoon-like monsters and deformations...layers and layers of marks, works, patterns, and symbols. My work tended toward more painterly marks, just beginning to integrate the pastels in small, secondary, less noticeable ways. A few pieces crossed the boundary, but none so successfully as this. But since i made this piece, the pastel has moved to my primary tool. The small marks, the detail, the possibility of layering...all conquered aspects of the drawing that I liked, while keeping the vibrance and punch of paint. The paint added the broad shapes, drips, splatters and patches that I always missed in drawings, but create a surface for the pastel even better than paper.

Also notable is the fact that this was made live, in one of my first ever tries at that...It was a disaster for about an hour. Just goes to show that you never quite know what to expect when doing art and you shouldn't be afraid of trying new things and making a mistake...it may just take you to a place you've never been, despite a slow beginning