The Pebble And The Magnet

Below is a piece that was (fairly) recently entered into a regional drawing prize. Working both on paper and in black and white was such a refreshing change of pace after all this painting. It reminds me that I originally entered art school with the intent of focusing on graphic illustration.

Beggars In The House Of Justice, 59.4 x 84.1 cm
Ink on Rives BFK
Illustrated October 2010

I recently completed my final semester with mixed feelings about the way the experience ended. In many ways, it was an abrupt regression after a a year and a half of progressive improvement, and I'm sufficiently discouraged by my final product that I don't want to post any images of those paintings.

Having made the immediate leap from art school to a full-time office job, I find myself increasingly distanced from my art-making practice. I am haunted by the words of a visiting artist whose primary advice was not to get bogged down in a "real job".

Wrong Side of the Bars

Courtroom sketches from a visit to Chelsea District Court in Boston earlier this year. Guess I forgot to post them at the time, but I just found them in an old notebook.




My favourite part was striking up a conversation with the guy next to me after he quipped, "Yo, you got mad skills," and then abruptly ending it when his name was called to be summoned before the judge.

The Jericho Mile

I feel like anatomical studies are the artistic equivalent of going for a run. Both are fundamentally beneficial to goals that I want to achieve but (for me, at least) also oftentimes monotonous. Which explains why I don't do either as often as I should.


I think the trick is to dive right in without thinking too much. Once you do get caught up in the mechanics of it all, there is a therapeutic dimension to that kind of mindless single-mindedness. Shake the rust off and it all becomes clockwork. Sometimes it's nice to just drift.