I Only Know People I Know Through Other People (If You Know What I Mean)

I Only Know People I Know Through Other People (If You Know What I Mean). This sketchbook was a gift from Holly (Christmas, 2006) and really impressed me at the time. Because it was perfect for me. Only, I didn't realize it at the time.

In January, I began the process of shutting down my second Richmond, Virginia art studio. The first one was shut down by redevelopment. This studio was shut down because I had lost all control. Hence, this particular sketchbook is entitled: "On Shutting Down and Starting Over. or. The Gaslight Search Engine Takes Control"

Travelling without a studio, sketchbooks have become my art for the last two and a half years (interrupted every now and then by the most beautiful paintings I have ever painted).

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer. Contains absolutely no drawings from London. Instead, a collection of thoughts, phrases, pictures, and places from the spring and summer of 2006. New York, Washington DC, friends, enemies, bottles, whirlwinds, the list of people to whom I gave over 200 paintings at my going away party... I drew numbers from a top hat (so as not to introduce favorites) to decide who would choose when... It's fascinating to compare the order of the draw (and more interestingly, the order of the choose) with my own estimations of a paintings strength...

Love Smells Like Flowers

Love Smells Like Flowers. I was wandering through the American Portrait Gallery, in Washington DC. It was 2006. Encountering a dozen new ideas about American folk art, and art in general, I made notes.

A Wrench Beside A Bottle Perpendicular to the Ground

A Wrench Beside A Bottle Perpendicular to the Ground. Get it? The bottle is parallel to the floor, but perpendicular to the ground (the canvas).

The Long Dark sketchbook begins with drawings from the night of August 13th, 2006. The last drawings I made in Richmond, realised the day before my original departure (I later decided to move my ticket back a week).

Notice the connection? You may also notice the flipside of my self-portrait, drawn on the same night).

Apples and Bananas

Apples and Bananas. Painted as one of my last still life paintings of 2006. I was sitting at a brown wooden table. It was a summer night, calm, and damp in silence...

This particular series incorporates pseudo-dynamic elements to invoke relative notions of our own ultimately geometric composition. The same series also alludes to the particle-based structure by which reality is composed. I'll tell you more about it if you ask nicely...

Sculpture Inside of the Hirshorn

Sculpture Inside of the Hirshorn. One of my first drawings done over words. When an artist draws a picture, what is often missing in the rendering are his thoughts. There is the perception of the object, which is colored by the bouncing of thoughts and words... Then, there is the rendering of the object, which is the result of pen to paper. I like this series of drawings because it reveals another dimension... Because an object is seen as an effect of its' surrounding environment, to truly reveal the reality of the perception, isn't it necessary to include the contextual state of mind of the artist?

The Red Light District at Night

The Red Light District at Night. It was one of my last drawings from 2006, a day before the new year. I was laying in my bed, peaking out the window at 3am. Last night, I was having dinner with three Romanians. One is an air-traffic controller who lives in the Netherlands, and he was telling stories of the red light district...

It's funny how two people can see different views of the same thing.

Astronaught in a SpacePack Sees Jesus with Big Feet

Astronaught in a SpacePack Sees Jesus with Big Feet. A self-portrait. You decide the rest...

A Scooter in Amsterdam

A Scooter in Amsterdam. Sitting in a cafe, watching people walk by... In front of me was a scooter, parked beside a canal... I drew this scooter while outside, having coffee. The canal had walls made of red brick.

A Still Life Model

A Still Life Model. She was nice to draw, the type of face that drew me from across the room. The title is a play on words, get it?

Legs (Self-Portrait)

Legs (Self-Portrait). Actually, my couch is purple. I'm surprised that it's me. I'm surprised that I like looking at my feet. What you can't read:

"I'm just really tired

But I'm not listening to me

(-insert drawing-)

But it's too late
it's too late to sleep
I've got to keep repeating myself
for no one to see"

It was 2am one night in November, 2006.

Roses are Pretty, Just Like You

Roses Are Pretty, Just Like You. Drawn in Amsterdam, I was thinking nice thoughts about people far away....

The Silver Penguin

The Silver Penguin. A glistening chrome-finished steel statue, resting on top of a black box... I had spent all of the summer of 2006 drawing everything, everywhere, everyday. In the weeks before I moved to London, my drawing output increased even more. The implied geometrical forms help to define the overall shape of the drawing... Ever since then, something about the line has been so compelling.

A Lighter

A red lighter, grid-based...

Still Life Drawing with Boots

I was positioned to draw the model, but really liked the boots of the artist to my left...

Girl in a Chair

It was 3am, the Synergy Project in London, November 2006. My favorite part is the toes...

The View Off the Porch of an Apartment Complex

Looking off the balcony of an apartment in Richmond, there stood a communication tower transmitting energy in every direction. Penetrating and surrounding, the waves cascaded across the landscaped perimeter of the fenced-in complex to wash through me as they had everything else...

Big Noise is a Bug Who Wears Boom-Box Sunglasses

What can I say? It's a boom-box. It's a bug. It's a boom-box. It's a bug. It's bug named "Big Noise", and he's wearing boom-box sunglasses... One of the finer moments of my surreal series, I love this picture. If you look closely, you can see me poking out from behind the left-side of the radio.

Want me to send you this postcard?

A Boat in a Canal

They must have thought I was crazy, climbing under a fence and balancing on a concrete pillar that separated the canal from the street... There is a beautiful light in the Netherlands.