Silk Screen Tshirt "Problem, Reaction, Solution"

"Yes Mummy, I agree, Father is a terrible dishwasher, so this morning I put a detergent tablet in his coffee..."

A friend created some wonderful silk screen t-shirts from some of my designs. He commissioned one with the theme "Problem Reaction Solution" Not knowing what I should do I just went for a 1950s housewife holding a book titled Problem Reaction Solution. It was never printed with the caption above, saying he preferred it this way. I still think it doesn't make sense without the caption. Maybe my jokes are lame, who knows?

The Fab Four

If you don't know who these four people are, then get the fuck out. I'm serious, they have to be some of the most recognizable people on the planet. It is of course John, George, Paul and Ringo of the Beatles. I won't bore you with an analysis, because seriously, what is there to say about this band that hasn't already been said better by someone else? This picture was drawn in 2009, that's 4 years ago. Damn, that's almost as ancient as the Beatles themselves...

Edie is STILL awesome (and so is Nico from the Velvet Underground)

 "It's not that I'm rebelling. It's that I'm just trying to find another way..."  Edie Sedgwick

This is a continuation from my last entry about Edie, with more experimental drawings, looking at facial form from some of my two most favourite faces to draw, Edie Sedgwick and Christa Päffgen (Nico). 'It Girls' or '1960s Paris Hiltons' make of it what you will they are AWESOME (to me). 

Both ladies are deceased icons of the sixties, which is probably the decade I appreciate the most. 
Both have a connection to Andy Warhol's Factory scene, drug abuse, and self abusive behaviors, and their own kind of talent, what's there not to love?

Sometimes I feel we are all just like Edie, lost and frightened little animals. Yearning to be seen, heard and understood. We yearn for the love and acceptance of those around us.

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"Why do people stop developing? From being children to maybe stopping at a very adolescent age, and they stay there until they die. Physically die. I mean, they react adolescently. They don't change. They don't develop. They don't! It's that continual read, that process which is...is the total threat for the ego..." - Edie Sedgwick

Nico was famed from a modeling carrer in Paris and a brief but forceful appearance in the Velvet Underground

"It is better to be addicted to opium then to be addicted to money" - Nico

Ink with brush on cartridge paper

Her life was a roller coaster of sadness, death and extreme addiction to heroin for over fifteen years. Her artistic talents were never considered by the masses to be of the greatest. She was generally considered a freak, however she spent her life giving her very best effort to sing her mind...and that she did in a very deep man-like voice. She did it the way she wanted to, in her own unique style, despite mass criticism.

Graphite pencil sketch of Nico, drawn alongside a self portrait

"And if I seem to be afraid, 

to live the life that I have made in song, 

It's just I've been losing, 

So long"    

 -These days, from Nico's first album Chelsea Girls

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The Escher Drawing

This piece was inspired by the great (and dare I say one of my most favorite) artist, Escher, as was much of my work. The image works both the way presented and upside down, and could be hung either way. I prefer the way first shown. I feel there is almost too much detail, so I have tried to break it down and focus on things that may not be seen on first glance. The image was hand drawn with fine liner as is most of my work. It contains Dutch style elements such as canals and windmills to connect it to Escher himself, since he was from the Netherlands. You can click on each image to make it bigger, so it's easier to see the all details.

A freakish bird like gargoyle is seen, morphing out from the left of the clock tower. This freaky face is more or less the same when turned upside down. The clock tower itself retains its appearance as a clock tower in both perspectives.

A pillar with an angel can be seen holding up a part of a building structure, to the right a waterfall powering a water wheel. Rotate 180 degrees and you see the angel pillar is now a person hunched over and weeping in despair. Behind the figure is another person trying to keep the pillar up under heavy weight and almost collapsing under the weight

Skyline of cathedral-like towers, masses of glass windows and a creature that resembles an airplane. When flipped around one of the towers become a rocket flying into space.

Probably my most favourite perception changes. A river flows next to some trees, passing by a stairway that leads up to a Victorian looking woman with a sun shade umbrella. She faces away from the Germanic style house and Dutch style windmill. When turned upside down, the image of the river remains, but in a new the perspective of a water canal. It flows into an Venice style water tunnel, complete with a row boat about to flow down a waterfall. The trees have now become pillars to hold up the water way

A close up of the water tunnel, below a German style timber house. The house over looks some sort of square garden to the right of the waterfall. A fencing match between to men can be seen next to a fir-like tree. The image makes less sense upside down, but still some structural features such as columns and pillars are of a correct perspective this way.

Some sort of cut-away view of the inside of some sort of row house structure. Rooms can be seen to the left, with a bed placed on the middle floor. To the right is a man holding hand with his two children. When rotated 180, the row house structures are now just one house with a hatched roof over-looking a Gothic clock tower.

Some parts of the roof to the Timber House was to become a stairway, but at the moment it still remains unfinished.

 This, like most of my work is available in high quality print format upon request.

Edie Sedgwick is Awesome

Edie looking super upset and pissed off (probably at Andy), or maybe just severe case of lude and alcohol intoxication

I really don't know why, but I have a total lady-crush on Edith Sedgwick. Something about her innocent face, her huge puppy-dog eyes, or even her intensely overt identity. Perhaps, because her appearance contrasts her life story, which seems to me, to be beyond fucked up. Poor little rich girl Edie, loved by all except her family.

I can see why she was a muse to Andy Warhol, her face is a joy to draw, there is something acutely 'boyish' about it.

Portrait of Edie done on Android based mobile phone with pen.

Portrait done in graphite pencil. Lots of mistakes, eyes are wrong, also nose need work.

I like to use Edie as a reference for female figures, including this Ketamine Angel

Berkwell Manor

Berkwell Manor is a late Second Empire Mansion with elements of Gothic Revival, constructed in the 1880s. It resides somewhere in the United States, most likely somewhere like New England or Virginia. It houses haunted tropes and idioms as far as the eye can see. There are elements from most American haunted houses, most notably reflecting the Psycho house and as well as a shout out to the Amityville Horror house. Basically the brainchild of a lack of the Sims 3 and a great love for the architecture of the macabre in general. There are 3 main floors, including a tower with a mansard style roof, and a storm cellar basement (which probably hides a dark secret).

The overhead floor plan of the entire house (excluding the basement)

Main Hallway/Entrance Hall showing stairs leading to second floor gallery (including suit of armor, grandmother clock, an evil looking fainting couch or chaise longue, beneath painted portraits; An image of Berkwell Manor, and portrait of a rather timid young lady)

The Dining Room, with a generous helping of creepy items added (including haunted grandfather clock, a portrait of a rather grumpy looking Victorian man,  a rotted corpse on the dining table, dusty draped curtains, and a carved pillar leading to a wall adorned decorative moulding archway, complete with creepy faces)

The Bedroom, situated on the second floor, overlooking the front facade of the house. More draped curtains and clocks, this time in the form of a demonic wind-up wall clock. Dead flowers. Small Dickensian style silhouette portraits. A destroyed lamp. A small four-poster bed with carved sculpting. A rather disturbing vanity table adorned by broken mirror...probably full of broken dreams

Sculpture depicting Death, or perhaps its not a sculpture...  I haven't decided yet. His right arm is holding a candle that represents one's life, which at this moment is snuffed out. His left hand carries an old pendulum clock. The clock depicts that time has run out, as the hands do not appear on its face, and the pendulum is still. The twelve candles adorning the draped menacing figure, oozing molten wax over his cloak, represent the months of the year, and the 4 candles above the clock's face represent the four seasons. The pendant depicting a single bee is used to represent the tirelessness of which death operates, and the burning wax is a metaphor for time.

2-(3-methoxyphenyl)-2-(ethylamino)cyclohexanone

One from the vaults, colour added half a year later...clearly inebriated.