A Little Dark
‘A Little Dark’ was a solo exhibition held at 55 Bond Street, New York, NY in October 2024. A body of over 20 large scale ink drawings was presented spanning multiple decades of evolution in process and conceptualization.
“Thank you to everyone who came to the exhibition of ‘A Little Dark’. I’m still riding the high of getting to celebrate a lifelong dream with my favorite people.”
A Little Dark presents a theater of satirical artwork where the human form and childhood innocence fuse with machinery, vanity and violence. the various narratives reflect our humanity as if through dirty glass in a dimly lit room. the viewer’s first reaction may be immediate to the imagery, but the underlying truths will linger long after the exhibition is over...like ink under the finger nails.
Love
Love explores the power of communication as connective tissue within a romantic relationship. A figure with no mouth is tangled in an intimate embrace with a partner with no ears while a third figure whispers secrets in his ear. The viewer is confronted with the question if the whispers are reactions...or instructions.
26.125" x 40.25"
Charcoal and ink on cold press watercolor paper
the weight
The Weight explores the emotion of heartache. The male figure’s brute force strength is powerful but fumbling while the woman’s is lighter, but with a restrained accuracy. They are locked within a gallery of events that lead them to this moment frozen in time.
40.25" x 26.125"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
IRL
IRL or ‘in real life’ reflects a moment in the pinnacle of human appetite. In a satire to the contemporary human connection, the female figure is caught in a moment of pure ecstasy or horror straddled atop a male figure twisting in agony or pleasure. The drawing depicts the search to feel something...real.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
The Dorian Gray Diet
The drawing is inspired by the allegory, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and explores the tragedies of body dysmorphia. In the story a young man exchanges eternal youth at the expense of his soul. In a similar transaction, the male figure’s emaciated reflection pleads with him to stop his destructive course, making this scene either an internal conflict or a darker foreshadowing.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
The fit
The Fit plays on the modern terminology for ‘fit’ to mean “outfit.” The inhumane use of the straight jacket forcibly put on another to prevent bodily injury is seen here as a statement piece of personal high-fashion adornment. The drawing explores the pinnacle of human insanity when we sacrifice comfort, fortunes and emotion to be fashionable...and put the jacket on voluntarily.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
Smoke show
Smoke Show explores the suffocating intoxication of fashion and beauty. The female figure is held in mid air as if suspended, draped in fine clothing and jewelry, the helmet is poised to snap shut at any moment as the viewer awaits the other shoe to drop.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
primal urge
Primal Urge utilizes the act of the selfie as a microscope into the history of humanity’s desire for its manicured image. A warrior out of time poses with her phone to frame a kissy face photo which is itself overshadowed by her natural strength, power and adornment. She needs to be seen...but can’t see herself.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
precious moments
Precious Moments dissects how the priority to capture special memories alienates can alienate us from the moment. The drawing is a satire on what siblings would be willing to do to win the favor of the camera lens while the mother fiddles with the filters to ensure she doesn’t miss a thing.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
First impressions are everything
First Impressions Are Everything surfaces the cost of institutionally forced tribute to authority visualized here via an outdated tradition of bringing an apple to the headmaster’s desk. The pulled pin in the grenade begs the question if the tribute is one of revenge...or mercy.
22" x 27"
Ink on cardstock
All Work and No Play
All Work and No Play traverses the ideology of public shaming framed by the familiar childhood scenario of classroom punishment. The innocent offense of talking in class is overtaken by a darker hidden admission and the question as to whether the punishment is the end or the beginning of something much worse.
22" x 27"
Ink and crayon on cardstock
falling off the horse
Falling Off the Horse is part of a series that frames social violence as a reflection of repercussions from our use of public shaming. The dunce cap is symbol for the human need to point and stare in order to provide a sense of normalcy.
22" x 27"
Ink and crayon on cardstock
santa is coming III
This work is the third installment in a series of drawings entitled Santa is Coming trolling the holiday trope of children writing to Santa Claus with their wish lists. The insidious undertones of the letter’s request protrude from the inline edit that portrays the insatiable need for more and more.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
profile
Profile is an end-to-end narrative carved out of an unfortunate life beginning with unresolved trauma and ending with violence. This work is split across two panels that can be rearranged to be displayed top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top symbolizing a tragic cycle of chicken or the egg.
40.25" x 52.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
self portrait
Self Portrait is a satirical depiction of the artist where a literal take on the subject matter of his work is reflected outwardly to a deranged life of extreme violence. To complete the faux autobiography, the drawing is literally stitched together, and the mediums are uncommon...including the artist’s own blood. In this way, the most fraudulent depiction of the artist also has the most of himself in it.
35.5" x 36"
Graphite, ink, acrylic paint, petroleum jelly, brown string, and human blood on cold press watercolor paper
family portrait
Inspired by Women forming a skull by Salvador Dali, this drawing confronts the commonly staged portrait depicting a perfect family. Representations of the members of the artist’s family struggle to pull the fabric taught to form a face that is equally imperfect and haunting.
40" x 60"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
Conductor of the Symphony of War
Conductor of the Symphony of War portrays an insidious figure standing atop his orchestra of child soldiers, exhausted and too small for their uniforms. The drawing confronts how the collateral damage of war can begin with the very soldiers that wage it.
40" x 60"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
make believe
The misguided childhood game of cowboys and indians is replayed in Make Believe utilizing the contemporary canvas of political greed and hate mongering. The setting changes thus transforming from a game and into a morbid reenactment.
36" x 24"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
sacrifices
Panel 1 of 3
The three panels interconnect to depict a chronicle of war. The chaotic imagery of lost innocence flies under the banner of collateral damage. The background is dotted with endless hand-written stories of victims of war with no punctuation to emphasize the endlessness. The three panels are individually violent, but it is only when the panels are viewed end-to-end that the full story emerges like a terrible Rube Goldberg war machine.
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
sacrifices
Panel 2 of 3
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
sacrifices
Panel 3 of 3
Sacrifices originally displayed in the exhibition entitled ‘Peace By Piece’ at the Guild & Greyshkul Gallery, New York, NY, and was subsequently invited to the 60th Anniversary Hiroshima Memorial Celebration, Old Bank of Japan, Hiroshima (2005).
26.125" x 40.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper
the rain to the wind once said
“The rain to the wind said,
You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged--though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.”
Inspired by the poem Lodged by Robert Frost, this drawing explores human loss and grief. Death perches on the exhausted man’s back while holding a sack over his face, which is either an act of delivery, or an act of taking.
40.25" x 52.25"
Ink on cold press watercolor paper