Long time no see

"Silly Games"

Wow it has been a while since I posted one of these. This is all work from my recent show up in Oakland. I took a little different approach to making work this go around. There was no nonstop sketching and redrawing leading to carefully transferred pencil lines on watercolor paper. Instead I drew directly onto my final surface and when the drawing was finished in pencil it all got inked and finished. No more fussing about.

My inspiration this go around was old fashioned pinups, in particular sepia toned erotica postcards from the early part of the 20th Century.

Response was good, although my friends kept asking me what was up with all the boobies (or at least a few people did). That is probably because I have never blatantly drawn women in various forms of undress. Maybe it was my Catholic upbringing but I never felt I had an excuse to draw nudity. I’m glad they all went over well and that I am not perceived as totally shameless.


(This is a big post but thankfully there are very little words. I apologize for some of the image quality, but my computer crashed before I left for Oakland. So as of now I only have digital camera photos of the work hanging in the gallery.)


“Silly Games Detail”



“S.O.S.”

“S.O.S. detail”



“Lift Off”


“Practice Makes Perfect”


“Practice detail”



“Secret Identity”


“Secret Identity detail”



“Stars and Dandelions”



“Stars and Dandelions detail”



“When I Lost You”


“Dream Girl”


“Dream Girl detail”


An interesting thing happened in the development of this project. I began wanting to just make some vapid straight up pin up drawings. However my brain kept working out stories for all of these ladies. No so much full narratives but small vignettes about who they are and what their deal is. This is why so many have costumes instead of just scarfs and blankets and sexy pot poses. I love the idea that “the clothes make the woman” and can tell so much about a character. When there were no clothes I used the setting as the costume. The brown drawings became scenes out of the lives of these anonymous women I made up.


“Party Animal”


“Party Animal detail”




“Marker Girl one”

These were very quick drawings I did before the show. I am trying to work looser and in a much more stylized way these days. So I’ll sit down and just try to crank out some caricature style drawings to get out of my usual way of working. My work holds together because of the types of subjects I depict. Stylistically though I worry that I’m all over the map (sometimes realistic, other times cartoony).


“Marker Girl 2”


“Marker Girl 3”

I don’t know if this is a good direction for full illustrations. They sure are fun to do though.



“Lost in Space (shaky camera version)”



“Fish out of Water”

What does it all mean? That seems to be the question everyone wants to know when they look at my work. At once it is flattering especially since my work is so narrative. Yet I like it when a viewer makes up their own story from the clues I have left in an illustration. Rather than having me just give it up. But my work is very narrative based so I shouldn’t complain.

With that said (since someone asked) the “Fish Out of Water” painting is about interacting with the opposite sex. Particularly when one is single and ready to mingle at bars and such. I became single at a time when other friends of mine also found themselves girl-less. Guys love to sit around and talk themselves up. When we go out we try to put our game face and best cologne fully convinced that we could have any woman at the bar.

The truth is though women make most of us nervous, especially the ones we are most attracted to. So our little shark boy has dressed himself up as a predator of sorts to get ready to hunt so to speak. Yet at the first sight of a beautiful mermaid…he falls apart. You can’t pretend to be something you’re not.

I like that some people find my work cute and I find my subject mater totally heartbreaking and uncomfortably personal…but you know in a humorous sort t of way.


“ Strings”

As for this one... well I’m still trying to figure it out. I explain it by saying that it's based on how pretty girls get surrounded by desperate guys at bars and at work to an almost suffocating degree. Yet there is that part of them that enjoys the attention.

However the truth is that the image of a girl wearing/bound by paper men just poped into my head and I thought it was relevent to what I was doing at the time(and also beautiful).

Sometimes that's all you need.
Well I'm out for now thanks for everyone that came out. The reception was loads of fun and the show runs all month so don't miss it!

Till later
Vincent