Artist Trading Cards

While making my drawings, I have been thinking about how the the combination of the different materials I am using work work together for a common goal, a finished drawing, and these drawings then become an entity in themselves.  In my studio are placed as many drawings on the wall as will fit. Upon looking at and contemplating the works together I began to think of the accumulation of the drawings as another piece in and of itself, made up of numerous 'players' or a result of a 'team' of drawings. Each piece being able to stand alone while at the same time contributing to something larger. 

As a sportscard collector I decided to take the idea of a 'team of drawings' to the realm of actual trading cards. I found a company that made baseball cards and decided to have a couple of my drawing made in to cards. They are the same size as baseball cards and even have the glossy finish. 

Since making these cards I have found out that there are events where artists show and trade ATC's (art trading cards) but these are usually  just little artworks that are on the 3.5x2.5 in format. Mine are different in that I have the photos of my artwork printed directly onto a baseball card. 

Skulls, my connection with David Dunlap

The use of skulls has been a recent addition to my work, but is not new to my interests. As a young boy, I was fascinated by the components that living creatures are made of. I loved looking at diagrams of muscle structure, veins and arteries, and of course the skeletal system. The skull in particular was striking in that it is made up of many different bones, but unlike the rest of the skeleton, the bones of the skull combine to form one unit that rely on each other and remain fused together even after all other parts have turned to dust.  

In my teenage years the skull acted as a way to bring out a rebellious side in me and tell authoritative  figures in my life to "stick it". Skulls were scary they belonged to the dead or those soon to be. They represented pirates, criminals and the lawless. Seeing someone with a tattoo of a skull instantly told be that they were a dangerous person. 

It was not until I saw an image of David Dunlap including pirate flags into his art that I started using skulls in my own work. It was a way for me to communicate with the man in a strictly visual way. I started sending images I made of skulls and he in turn would send me new images. It is a fun way to communicate with a limited verbal interaction. 

Instead of trying to verbally interpret what the other person is saying with their imagery, it is done using only visual cues. This has been an interesting form of communication that I hope will continue. 

Finished or Unfinished?

These skull drawings started with an agenda that changed on me as I was making them. They have each gone through different stages of finished. As I now see them on my computer screen I feel they have not been worked to the extent that I had originally desired. Which is that none of the white of the paper appears through the areas that have been filled in with ball-point pen. I want the areas of pen to rely more on the direction of the mark-making than the values created through overlapping lines. It is the impression that the point of the pen leaves on the paper that I am interested in with the pens I am using.  

Obelisk Drawings

I am working on a series of drawings that deal mostly with obelisks, skulls and stars. The compositions remain unified by the placement of the horizon line and the column. I have done this so I can explore different treatment of the surface of the paper in relation to the shapes that have been created.  This gives me a constant denominator in each of the drawings so I can eventually compare them to each other and decide how the surface treatment sets the 'mood' of the drawing.

I find a mystery in the images I am using in that they leave me with more questions than answers. They cause me to look into myself and reflect on what a human skull signifies, and to examine what stars mean to us today and for those who lived long before, with the obelisk linking it back to society. 

The three drawings pictured here are a few examples of the most worked surfaces in the series, combining ink pen, felt tip marker, highlighters, graphite, and gauche. The very dark one is also part of a series of drawings that uses only ballpoint pen. All are 25"x19" on stonehenge paper.