Exposition
This piece came about shortly after starting my commercial art career. It’s a tribute to the rapid-o-graph pen (used heavily in olden times graphic arts) and includes a reflection of my young man’s brain.
The work shares free-hand with drafting tool aided drawing techniques.
The composition started with a schematic of the graphic arts pen, then was embellished with imaginative and symbolic neural elements.
The piece is decorated with images of my emotional thoughts along with some elements from the 1969 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. (movie was great – book was better)
1975 – Acrylic and ink on illustration board
The following are some artwork details with further explanations:
Detail A – This symbolizes a dragon hanging off the ear of “me” in my flying saucer. The dragon appears as a symbol for Satan. The flying saucer is my extra exploratory vehicle that enables me to breathe in the “outer space” of my nine-year-old mind. Many times the Devil wanted me dead but my imaginary saucer’s shield enabled me to survive.
Detail B – The purple shape is the dark spirit of Satan morphing in and out of its physical and spiritual form.
Just below is a green and red tropical bird inspired from the album cover, “Flowers of Evil” from Leslie West and Mountain, circa 1971.
Detail C – Moving just south and east of the bird is a “Donald Duck” symbol that is inspired by Disney’s rejection of my application for employment. Oh well, “nobody’s perfect”… case in point!
Detail D – The work in the lower right corner is significant. My initials are next to the green symbol (me) with a red inner creature that represents my disordered brain’s deformation. My “savior” at the time was my first wife. She is symbolized by the light green figure to my left. The pattern flowing from her to my brain was the music of love’s song and inspiration that we shared.
Detail E – The green dragon at the bottom left corner is my alter ego that occasionally struts his stuff to himself with perishable accomplishments like this drawing. This symbol illustrates a bit of the inside my cranial core looking for a “feel good” about myself kinda feeling. Kind of a God given safety valve that was in play during the Balance project.
Detail F – The red dragon near the center just east of “Discovery’s” antenna is a symbol for the creating behind the engineering of the artwork. The multicolored “ball” being sewn together just below “Discovery” symbolizes the artwork itself.
The remaining stars and diagonal lines and circles are for compositional cohesion… an attempt to tie everything together.
Like I’m now attempting to do on a larger scale with eds-art.net.