The Gallery: Conceptual 2
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Text and Artwork:
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Fate Leans Closer Conté & Graphite 13" x 20" This drawing uses one of my favorite techniques, drawing on a toned paper and pushing outward from a mid-tone to both highlights and shadows. I employed it here to try and really enhance the feeling of having the figure looming, leaning over the sword hilt. The figure is my interpretation of an aspect of Time...that sense of history which teaches us. Consider him to be the personification of Cause and Effect, and as such, he becomes a masculine form of Fate. Fate is based in what we ourselves choose to do...how we ourselves choose to be. He is looming forward, watching intently to see what you do. Your own fate is in the balance....the sword is unsheathed and ready, but at the same time it is at rest. Each cause guarantees an effect.... And if you aren't watching yourself carefully, that effect may feel more than a little stern. 
The Future Muses in Sudden Silence Conté & Graphite 13" x 20" Fate and the Future are intertwined. Just as I envisioned Cause and Effect as the masculine aspect of Time as Teacher, I envision the future possibilities rippling outward...Time in the form of Consequences. Cause and Effect is the history of the past; Consequences is the potential effects of future causes. Consequences sits beside the pool of Time and watches the ripples as they form... watching as potentialities and human creativity (and perversity) cause ripples to form asymmetrically. Will we see the consequences of our own potential actions, before they become completed causes, with the effects inherent in those causes? Will you employ forethought and foresight in our movement through Time? She waits for you to supply the answer. 
Maelstrom Oil 20" x 26" This painting is the visual expression of a certain night (and its mood); it has a companion poem, "Maelstrom", which can be found on Short Free Verse 2, in the middle of the page. The night was one of restlessness...an overwhelming drive for movement that I occasional get. I literally have to walk the energy off; it is too restless to even turn to creative work to soothe it. One of the things I liked about this painting as I worked on it was deciding how to handle the horse-head image. I wanted it there, as the energy formulates itself in that image in my psyche, but I also didn't want it to be confused with the other, more tangible, expressions of that night. I ended up using a stylus to draw down through the wet paint, which created some very nice 'spooky' effects. (Unfortunately, they don't show up on either image here...subtle greens and blues in the scraped away lines of the drawing.) 
Lemming Drops Ink & Colored Pencil 18" x 24" Lemmings. The human kind....I can't help but paraphrase that old song about the lemon tree... "Lemming drops, very stupid..." I normally don't attempt cartoons, and certainly not on such a large scale. But...hey, there comes a time when you just gotta draw whatcha gotta draw...So I did. I drew two lemming cartoons, (see the next image below), made copies and copies and copies, colored them in with various shades of browns, and collaged them onto ink drawings. Now, hopefully you aren't one of those people that drove me to this, lol... but I am pretty certain you can catch the drift of meanings within the piece. Cartoon characters endless repeating themselves and happily throwing away what existence they do have with shouts of glee at their own "cleverness". 
Lemmings: It's All Downhill From Here Ink & Colored Pencil 18" x 24" Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a true disbeliever of humans as potentially able to be independent thinkers. But I have to say, when a commercial comes on about how we can all have our own "individual" style by going right out and buying the same clothing as everyone else, I cringe. I cringe worse when I see that so many people don't catch the complete and total irony of such a commercial. You know, real lemmings are very adaptive little arctic dwellers who, under population pressures, will suddenly go on mass migrations. They are actually very good swimmers, and the old legend about lemmings rushing to their deaths by leaping off cliffs enmasse is pretty much unfounded. I think, however, that it has become a legend just because it is so true of the human race.
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