Nightlight

I experimented with a new technique on the following drawing.
Watercolors are complicated.
I consider much learning to have occurred.
For anyone wondering about the lull during the past few weeks, let's just say
life is crazy sometimes.

"Nightlight"

5" x 7"

Watercolor

Learn about Laura Converse.

It's Your Call

At least half is in how it's taken.

Who touches it, and where

One must remember that motives matter,

[hunger for meaning or unused time]

and so does the life that preceded the glance

[broken from labor or lost at home]

whether clutching shredded bits into gut like tentacles of anemone

or reassembling the whole under microscope

or shredding with aimless scalpel

I have no part in any

and all happens as it will.

"Her Head"
12" x 12"

She Can't Remember

"She Can't Remember"
18" x 24"
Chalk on Paper

I'm really happy with how the expression in this one came out.



Get to know Laura Converse.

"Cold Inside"

"Cold Inside"
18" x 24"
Colored Chalk on Paper

I lost a big chunk of my thumbnail while working on this one.
It was worth it.




See other chalk drawings.
Learn more about Laura Converse.

Inexhaustible Source

"Infinite"
15" x 20"
Soft pastel on illustration board

"The Easy Way"

I made this on a recycled canvas, about 9" x 12".  This is my second ever oil painting.

This is how we win:

I'm going to share a commissioned piece I just finished today.  This is my first time doing a large-scale oil pastel piece.  It's definitely a different way of going about things, and I think I will try it again some time.

"This is how we win"
15" x 20"

I made the mistake of buying a non-standard-sized illustration board for this project, so I had to order a custom-made frame. That gets expensive. Bad move on my part.


Arranging my art from the past few years for my show next week made me realize that I miss the old ink drawing style.  Yes, tedious, but it has an edginess I can't achieve with other media.  The result is worth it.

Bubbling Up

"beneath the surface"
4" x 6"
Colored pencil on scrap paper
(Original is matted)

Back Yard

"back yard"
5" x 7"
Scratchboard

The Boy in the Wall

Learn more about Laura Converse here or see more surreal photography here.

The Deeper One

It's always there, no matter where I am.

I have only to remember to look for it.

See more surreal photography here.

Seven Stars

This was an experiment in two ways:

1. I tested out using the style of color segregation I tend to reserve specifically for pen and markers--this time with paint.
2. I gessoed a the back of my giant sketch pad as a painting surface; it was the right size to fit into an improvised frame I made. The frame was made from a torn pre-stretched canvas. I ripped off the damaged canvas, removed the staples, and am using the underlying structure as a plain wooden frame.

See more of my paintings here.

Socket: an oil pastel drawing

I needed to buy a new white oil pastel to create this drawing.  I find it interesting that a single white pastel ranges in price from 25 cents to $4 at the store I went to.

I've come to realize that anything can be an art supply, really. Sand, old coffee, melted candles, glue, engine paint, plywood . . .

So I bought the 25 cent one.

Big surprise.

See other oil pastel drawings.

Guilt

This is an oil pastel drawing which I created in a coffee shop in downtown Bellingham.  I then scratched crosshatch patterns using a scratchboard tool.

See more of my colorful art pieces or drawings that involve blood.

The Way of the Sea

The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook. 

Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.

Pen and marker on vellum; based on Psalm 77.

Find more drawings based on the Bible.

42 Hours

42 hours awake, one of them spent drawing this picture.

I made it on a series of flights to Managua, Nicaragua.

It’s a continuation of my Philippians series.

See other surreal black & white drawings.

Words Are Dangerous

My House III
8" x 8"
Watercolor and pen on vellum

My brain is full.  Words are dangerous—
so I won't give them to you tonight.

You can find more art based on human bones here, or check out the other images in the "My House" series.

The Living World

I think it's funny how we project our humanity into everything we see . . . and also how we fail to recognize life in things that don't move and change as quickly as we do.

This is an oil painting on a 3' x 4' canvas: my first with this medium.

See more of my surreal landscapes.

Using Free Art Supplies

It's an enjoyable challenge to create a piece exclusively from free materials. In my experience, imposing a framework for a piece is the most important part of its formation. Often I create that framework via medium.

Materials for this piece come from a box of donated items: a rejected, pre-cut mat, a piece of scrap paper, and a pencil stub.

It's part of my Philippians series.

See more graphite drawings here.

Grow from It

Materials:

• Cut paper
• Sketch paper & pen
• Glue
• Acrylic paint

See more surreal pieces here, or check out other drawings in my Philippians series.