James Dean

James Dean, 2000. 11" x 17". oil pastel on paper.

Sketch I did of Dean from a calendar I had with photographs from the famous sweater series. I had an enormous interest in the man as well as what he kind of stood for during my high school years. He embodied a coolness unattainable to me. I watched every move me made in his films and tried to emulate his ways of standing or how he looked at someone. It was definitely a huge failure and while my Dad was berating me for whatever stupid thing I had done at the time, he called me 'James Dean in a D-grade movie'. Dad didn't think much of Dean's acting ability, often told me so and I guess a D movie was a few steps lower than a B movie. I most likely was over acting to whatever they had punished me with so I guess the putdown had merit.

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali, 2000. 30" x 30". oil pastel and pencil on paper.

Another High School project I did of one of my art idols back then. Dali was the odd one in the group with Calder and van Gogh. I liked the young suave Dali far better than the old cuckoo clock he became later in life. The project consisted of four quads to represent the subject in cool colors, warm colors, black and white, then finally natural colors and see what effect this created.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers, 2000. 24" x 24". pencil on paper.

Did this just from my head for a class project in High School my senior year and it got entered into a Youth Art Month contest which I won for my county and it was then shown at the High Museum of Art for Georgia Youth Art Month. My art teacher talked me into entering it into some gallery near our school and during the opening night this lady offered me twenty bucks for it and I was rather appalled by what I felt was far too low! Haha, looking back if I had sold it then it would still be the only work I'd made any money from.

Portrait of a Young Girl

Portrait of a Young Girl, 2000. 7" x 11". chalk on paper.

Done from a photo of my High School girlfriend.

Scorpio Stable

Scorpio Stable, 2000. 24" x 20" x 46". particle board and india ink.

Another artist I was constantly taking from was Alexander Calder. This stable was based off the sign for the astrological symbol of Scorpio and the actual scorpion.

Indian Woman on Beach

Indian Woman on Beach, 1999. 11" x 17". acrylic on canvas.

Taken from a National Geographic about the Indian movie studios I was interested in the dream like quality of the subject matter.

Daffodils

Daffodils, 1999. 18" x 24". oil on canvas.

Done for a friend in High School this painting was set up compositionally just like van Gogh's 'Lilies'. I even signed my name similar to how Vincent did his.

The Elevation

The Elevation, 1999. 12" x 18". tempera and india ink on paper.

High School project that involved a figure study abstracted into Duchamp's 'Nude Descending Stair'; a kind of pseudo cubist thing.

Self Portrait

Self Portrait, 1999. 7" x 10". acrylic on canvas paper.

Another self portrait I did while in High School. I had a mustard yellow dress shirt I bought at a thrift store and wore it nearly every week. I did so many self portraits during this time in school that after some dumb thing I had done to make my mother royally cross with me she exclaimed, "I've never seen someone so involved with themselves! Look at all these damn narcissistic portraits!" or something like that... This was a difficult (as difficult as a suburban white male thinks they can have I suppose) time in my life. I constantly fought with my father and mother so I guess my escape was to turn inward on myself and I painted in a manner that suited that.

Buddhist Monk

Buddhist Monk, 1999. 11" x 17". oil pastel on paper.

A monk I drew for practice. I was fascinated with Buddhism in High School and I had a book about monks living in Tibet. This was from a photo during a ceremony where they were playing large wind instruments.

Still Life

Still Life, 1999. 11" x 17". oil on canvas paper.

A quick painting I did to flesh out my portfolio for the AP Art class in High School. I copied from van Gogh and Cezanne.

Boot

Boot, 1998. 12" x 5" x 15". kiln fired clay.

Sculpture of my father's boot that I often wore. He said it was "Italian" but I don't know if that means its from Italy or what. The strap was made too thin with the clay and I had to use hot glue to repair it. These boots have been documented in art many times. Friends I had later in college drew it and I've included it in other still life drawings.

Bali House

Bali House, 1998. 24" x 36". oil pastel on paper.

I found an interesting photo from Architectural Digest about a Bali house which was very open and had great asian themed objects to decorate the interior. I was very interested in Asia in High School which stemmed from my curiosity in Buddhism. So I drew this for some class project.

Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily, 1998. 7" x 10". oil on canvas paper.

Done for a father's day gift this painting was of the tiger lilies that grew behind our house.

Self Portrait

Self Portrait, 1999. 8 1/2" x 11". oil pastel on paper.

I was very deep into my Van Gogh worship at this point in my High School career. I read everything I could find on the man. I looked at his work constantly and would put my face very close to the pictures to try and see his hand move as he placed his colors down. You can see how far my study of his work went as I basically copied this shown below while just exchanging my own face for his.

Fundamentals I

This was my first ever architecture project done for Fundamentals I back in 2001. We started by randomly placing black marks on a grid which then became the floor plan, we took that plan and stood it up and that became the elevation as well. Somehow out of all that I saw a Ski Lodge. How a Georgia boy who'd never seen a lodge or even a real hard snow came up with that I'll never know. I proceeded to get a "C" in this class. That could explain my current unemployed status some nine years later, HA!