CITY OF GEARS 2013

DOODLE DRAWINGS SURREAL VISIONS. What lies behind the face of a building? Beneath the feet of a crowd? Below the roots of a tower and in between stars? As the daylight starts to sneak away so too do the Masks of the metropolis revealing magical moments and hideous horrors alike. The business man relaxes, the moon builds a pyramid, the streets stagger hazily and vehicles all crash; here is the true city naked without masks. Like some strange and infinite anthill the denizens climb to through the skies as the collective unconscious takes on physical form...

This series of detailed pen and ink artworks was based on a simple idea: “The Masks of the City”. Like most of my drawings I come up with a little theme, idea, poem or simple sentence to inspire the series. Once I have this starting point I go straight to work with the  ink on paper and try to meditate on the original concept letting the imagery take over. There are no preliminary sketches and I never make any corrections when doing these. The first paragraph (above) gives a little bit of an indication on how my train of thought progresses while doodling away. The title idea, in this case “Masks of the City” helps me create cohesive collections but also lets my imagination wander while always having a place to return.  This artistic approach is my favorite because I always come up with surreal images that I wouldn't discover otherwise.

There were quite a few interesting things I ended up exploring in this series that I haven't used very much of in my previous works. As I started thinking about the “Masks” theme I got interested in the idea of seeing things that are usually hidden. As a result I ended up drawing a lot more interior scenes than I ever did before. I left the fronts of the buildings exposed and added giant melting fleshy faces dripping into into the streets. This imagery makes some weird connection between the human face and the face of a building that I found rather intriguing. Inside the buildings there are all sorts of strange things happening from monsters and business meetings all the way up to things I could never put into words. In addition to drawing more interior scenes my stream of consciousness also let to more cosmic inclusions. These are probably my first artworks ever to feature scenes from outer space.  In several images the giant human masks are either reflected in the moon or stretching all the way to the stars. Again this analogy just came out of my initial inquiry; “What lies behind the Masks of the City?”

The completed series includes thirteen 8 inch x 10 inch doodle drawings, one larger 3 foot by 6 foot artwork. Each of the drawings was done using fine point quill pens with black India ink on paper. The original drawings were presented as part of a multimedia sculptural installation during the 2013 Toronto Nuit Blanche. The exhibition included a giant eyeball, projected animations and interactive video game artworks.