"The Root of all Valerian"

acrylics & pencil on paper

An idea about insomnia that had been kicking around a while, and ended up being the last hurrah of painting, after not quite getting the tones of the mattress maze right and painstakingly repainting them multiple times...

It also was painted to be a big gun piece in my application for Graphic Arts, which was the final nail in the coffin. Funnily enough to start this section with its epitath. Visual artist to illustrator/designer; long laborious days of painting to short chunks of useable time; brush and paper to tablet and screen.

"Muse #2"

oil paint & pencil on paper

In the lead-up to trying my luck at Visual Art at VCA, I became paralysed with artist's block, examing everything for its folio compatibility (and artistic "credibility").

This was my glorious breakout of incorrectness, and my dedication of myself to a harsh mistress, who I have since neglected at times...

"Periphery / Ephemera"

mixed media

My only journey into the conceptual, which got me an interview for sculpture but not painting, and was damn heavy to bring over on the bus and cart to interviews on a sack truck!

"Rupture"

oil paint & pencil on paper

There was a story behind this, but the most interesting thing about it, no matter how many pictures of naked women were on my walls, people would scan the room and instantly find the one cock!

"The Hardest Cut"

pencil on paper

Oddly enough, this wasn't as grim as it looked, but a black pun inspired years later by a memory of the Young Ones episode where Neil can't crucify himself because he can't drive in the last nail.

The Young Ones also inspired me at age 15 to shave my hair into a mohawk the night before the school photos.

"Emersion"

acrylic & pencil on paper

Was my big breakout from pencil works in my sketchbooks to larger pieces, and to the joy of coloured paper.

"Imminence"

pencil on paper

Included more as a document of my only attempt at full time non-creative employment before pulling my finger out 10 years later and getting a qualification (and a good job.)

"Reunion of Old Friends"

pencil on paper

Neatly ending this section with what was the zenith of my pencil technique, the last full work in the last of the sequential sketchbooks, #26.