GOTHIC URBAN NIGHTMARES

Dark Drawings “Of Pigs and Poverty…” Strange humanoid creatures wearing bodies turned inside out sift through the city’s nightmare.  The streets are the stage for the  savage gothic carnival  which exists all around us. Deviant behaviors motivated by a philosophical greed, acts of desperation, theft and self degradation permeate almost unseen in every café, bar and nightclub. Skeletal beings excessively hunt one another, scrounging for fleeting pleasures and begging for cigarettes along metropolis’ concrete pathways.  Beware of friendly faces and false fashion statements for the blood thirsty beasts often disguise themselves as hipsters…Man as animal, animal as demon and demons of desire reveal themselves as ferocious in this bleak collection of weird illustrations.

These strange artworks were inspired by experiences and observations I made while hanging out in various coffee shops and watering holes around Kensington Market and downtown Toronto.  Most of the drawings were done in an 8.5 x 11 inch book of archival paper using technical pens and a two step ambidextrous technique. To create the images I always would start with my left (off) hand by scribbling thin skeleton figures and designs out quickly. This was followed by a layer of thick hairy details generally created using my practiced right appendage. The experimentations with this unusual approach promoted accidental and unconscious imagery and permitted me to focus on capturing the essence of my surroundings as opposed to the technical facets if illustration.

Approximately 200 small pen and ink works and 6 larger ink on paper drawings were shown at the basement gallery in the Winter of 2004. For this installation the drawings were hung against heavy black walls complete with red floor paneling and red ceilings designed specifically for the show. An extended collection of these illustrations, including over 600 new drawings, was shown later the same year at the XPACE Gallery. For the XPACE exhibition the work was installed in an enormous grid shape measuring approximately 12 x 100 feet and was once again hung against ominously black painted gallery walls. A 150 page graphic novel companion piece to this series was also created during the summer of 2004.