Drawings, 1996

Home / Drawings, 1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

“Gary: The Art Dealer”
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Gary was not my first Art dealer. But I was his first artist. It was the mid 90’s. The gay scene was still on fire. Organizing to mobilize and politicians and funding for AIDS. And Gary was gay. When I met him he was the campaign manager for a local politician running mostly on a single plank: being gay. She lost her election, but Gary discovered that pimping a young hot artist could help promote himself and his candidate.

After the election he focused almost entirely on selling my art. He was well connected and did in fact organize a number of shows at trendy restaurants and even a kind of retrospective in a park the summer of 1996. He was also very flamboyant and a lot of fun. We held parties in my studio and attracted some of Seattle’s important local who’s who.

Unfortunately he was an alcoholic and very reckless with money. Even though he was a few years older than me, I ended up taking care of him. Managing his affairs. Bailing him out of an apartment. Trying to save his car from being stolen by throwing myself on the hood of his car as a thief was driving off with it in reverse. Only to find out later after having been scraped off the car under the bow of a parked boat that it was the repo man….Gary hadn’t made a car payment in months.

Eventually he even started using my art as collateral on promises to people without me knowing. The painting included here was stolen by Gary and I suspect was used to cure a debt with someone who may not even know they have a stolen painting.

Gary had the potential to be a great art dealer. And in some ways I think If I were older and stronger at that time I may have been able to have helped him. But he was beyond my reach at that time and becoming dangerous to my fragile reality. I pushed him out and because he was feeling guilty about what he was doing he left without protest. This was pre internet and so I never heard from him again.

This drawing captures the zany qualities of this man who I hope has found sobriety and a more honest way of life. He was such a beautiful spirit and I am so grateful to have known him.

Stolen Painting

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

“Masterpiece Factory”
Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

This piece could be called “landscape” or “Mountains with Sun” or any number of things. But it’s called “Masterpiece Factory 1433” because it is the one thousand four hundred and thirty third piece that was produced at a gathering I held in my studio every Wednesday night called “Masterpiece Fucking Factory.” It lasted about 2 years and usually hosted 4-10 people.

We all sat at a long table and passed sheets of paper down the factory line with each person adding something to the page until it came out the other end at which point it would get pinned to the wall. Sometimes we limited how much time we could spend on a paper and sometimes we didn’t. Generally the booze and good cheer kept things moving along easily. The idea was not to produce masterpieces of course. We were creating community and occasionally something worth looking at. Some of the participants were accomplished artists, musicians or writers. Others had no artistic background whatsoever. It didn’t matter. Everyone was welcome on the factory line.

After a while we would take a break and go look at the art. We had fun mocking how bad some of the art was and marveling at how pleasing and “interesting” it was. Any of us was allowed to claim what we wanted and call it our own. Most of it went in the re-cycle bin to be painted over next week or in the real recycle bin never to be seen again.

These evenings were a lot of fun. I was painting non stop in those days. It was before I was married and had no kids. These evenings where my studio was full of people laughing and making art together were some of my fondest memories from those years.

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996

Pencil/paper
8.5″ x 11”
1996