COLORING BOOK
This series of artworks is rapidly evolving and covers a broad range of topics and imagery. Many of the themes derive from a sense of self as an observer, or diary that alludes to a feeling, place, or time. In certain works there is overlap but the overall consistency is based off the line work which is derived from the sketches.
For many years I have spent a majority of my artistic time in my sketchbooks when a studio was not possible or I was working 60+hr weeks on the road. I felt compelled to take the small musings and gestural shapes that had been piling up and make them larger and concrete... hence the Coloring Book name was begun.
One thing that happens when working small is there is an expediency that I love and also a wonderful sense of composition that naturally comes out. I enjoy that I don’t have to change much and the pre-determined layout allows me to make decisions in the final piece that are advantageous to experimentation… my main objective.
Another aspect of this series is that I will make more than one painting with the same base drawing design. This ties into the idea of "Coloring Book" in a way in which multiple books of print would be colored in differently. Every time I make one of these paintings I want to see how I can develop it more. I could make a whole series based off one image. Other ideas that are within the broader series are my fascination with plants and conceptual ideas about religion and spirituality. I have started to develop languages that push these towards a cartoon character or towards divinity through portal language and symmetry. My cartoon characters are a play on the idea that flowers are in fact NOT "beautiful". Nature is vicious entity or being. "Little Ray de Sunshine" is a play on words --- alluding to Leonardo DaVinci and his character is that of someone who was "Raised in the Streets". This is a form of Self Portrait, and pokes fun at my father [Raymond] at the same time... given my life wasn't all "Peaches and Cream". My father was a pastor (fyi) and this is what leads most of my work back into a spiritual realm or quest to find the meaning of life while also living/creating art.
This Series is Ongoing
