Maskerade

Golden Beets

Watercolor over Gesso

White Charcoal Pencil on Black Paper

We got these gorgeous golden beets in our weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share, and I was way more excited about painting them than eating them.

I did the white-over-black gesso underpainting first, intending to add color over the top. But then I liked in it black and white so much that I did an extra white charcoal drawing on black paper so I could have it both ways. 

White Gesso over Black Gesso on Illustration Board - Underpainting

Fear & Sadness

Fear 17" x 9 1/2"

These from-life self-portraits were meant to depict the specific emotions of fear and tragedy. Fear went fairly well, but I just couldn't get a handle on tragedy. My drawing only expressed sadness. 

Later it dawned on me: I had failed to sufficiently define and understand my terms. Tragedy is a concept that can only apply to circumstances or situations. An event within a narrative can be tragic, or the whole narrative can be tragic. One can have an emotional reaction (like sadness or catharsis) to tragic event, or feel emotions (like self-pity, despair, or anger) about falling victim to tragic circumstances, but tragedy itself is not an emotion. It is a characteristic of a narrative. Without a story, there can be no tragedy.

So without a narrative, my drawing was doomed to fall short of "tragedy" and became "sadness" instead. So there it is. Enjoy.

Sadness 17" x 11"

Ian's Feet

Shadow Puppets

Egg with Pyramids

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy this tasty mixed-media cheesecake.