The idea behind this is that the boxed figures have a power, a vitality that the unboxed figures don't. The colors of the outside figures change as they absorb and destroy the boxed figures. It definitely has a cannibalistic mood to it. I don't think it feels dark until you actually look and see what the figures are doing. I put every emotion I was feeling at the time into this second version.
This is one picture I feel has been perfectly "solved".
I call it solving because these pictures in what I call my old style. are very much like puzzles, in that I have to get the colors I want but they can't blend with the background plus they have to have an emotional intensity as well. It can get very complicated and I've messed up more than one! This piece has something I hope desperately I can continue to achieve.
Powerhungry original pastel version 22 x 30 (shown below)
This was the first draft of the drawing.
Mixed media: Colored pencil and paint marker for the outlines
The whole surface was sanded down to get the mottled appearance.
I can't really recall the mood I was in when I came up with the original sketch but it wasn't a good one.
I ended up not liking the thickness of line and the color scheme when I was done with it, so it got stashed away. Then one night Chad and Darren came over for some reason. Bill and Chad were talking business, Darren (a former artist himself) and I ended up talking about art. He was great at pushing me to keep at it: "persevere, keep at it, what do you have to lose? Don't procrastinate. Work past the fear." That sort of thing.
So I was showing him a stack of stuff, I'd been looking through just out of frustration at not knowing what to do with any of it and he pulled this one out and said "This would be F-n awesome, what's wrong with you! You have to work on this one. Persevere, you have so much talent don't waste it."
So I started the second version soon after because I couldn't not look at this one and think of that talk.....A year later one of my favorite people: Darren Farwell was dying of skin cancer. he was 32 and it was way too soon.
It all happened so fast and yet once we knew it was going to happen it was agonizing for me. He was the first person I've known (besides my grandparents) who was going to be taken from us and there wasn't one damn thing you could do about it, I just could not deal with that. Not that it's ever easy.
Everyone else in my life had been taken suddenly with no preparation and no idea it would ever happen how it did. Boom, you're hit with it- deal. Shut down, fall apart, start over. This I didn't know how to handle, I remember crying almost every day the last few weeks.
It's not like we were best friends or anything really, just people with an extremely strong common interest and some wonderful conversations.
This picture was the result of our talks. Of his belief that I could do it.
In Memory of Darren. Wear sunscreen.
We love you and miss you... (I am persevering!)
June 25th 1969 - september 14th 2001
DLF Foundation for skin cancer awareness!
http://www.dlffoundation.com/pages/darren.htm
http://www.uvskinz.com/articles.aspx
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