Categories
Pen and Ink Sold

Giant Sucking Sound

Giant Sucking Sound. Rapidograph pen and ink on Strathmore 400 Series Bristol paper. 14″ x 14″. $600 (SOLD)

This is the second piece (along with Hands Across America) that was created as part of my preparation for the Falling Into Place exhibit with Michelle Carlson at the 20 North Gallery. It’s meant to draw attention to the decimation of American blue-collar jobs resulting from the mass movement of manufacturing overseas as a result of free-trade policies adopted in the 1990’s.

There’s a lot about this piece that I like from a technical perspective. There are very few mistakes, and those that are there are not obvious. The face in pieces is that of a very close friend, and I like that shattered-mirror-like effect so much that I’ll undoubtedly use it again in future work. All of the realism elements came out really well, and many of the abstractions harbor traits requiring some intellectual effort to interpret, which is intentional. This one and its companion piece mentioned above are two of my personal favorites thus far.

Categories
Art For Sale Pen and Ink

Brush With Art

Brush With Art. Platinum Preppy fountain pen with Platinum Carbon ink on Strathmore 300 Series Bristol paper. 8″ x 8″ framed. $320

This is an unusual piece for me, in that I deviated from my usual approach of first subdividing the page into sections suitable for individual micro-drawings. I instead opted to ‘go with the flow’ of the patterns and elements that evolved in the piece, and I think the results are handsome; I will likely repeat this approach in a future piece. It was also created over an extended period of time: I found it in my unfinished-works pile earlier this year, and decided it was worth pursuing. The earliest portions probably date back over a year.

There are a lot of fun aspects to this piece that came out well. I’m particularly pleased with the tree and droplet, which was non-trivial to do at such as small scale. The title comes from the brush at the bottom and to the right of center, which turned out to be serendipitous (I was struggling with how to title this one until I saw it and realized the potential.) There are a couple of stray marks I might clean up down the road, but I’ve received enough marvelous compliments on this one that I’m calling it a winner.

Categories
Art NFS Pen and Ink

Ah Nuts!

Ah Nuts! Micron pens on Strathmore 300 Series Artists Tiles. 4” x 4”

This piece is one I uncovered in a box of art supplies I’d left sitting for a while (as in years), so I don’t have a precise date of completion, however I’d ballpark it at 2015. It’s one of a series of small pieces I did to keep my hands busy while I thought about a problem. It has one or two very minor flaws, but the precision is very good to my eye, and I enjoy the humor of the squirrel in one corner and the nuts in another, hence the title.