Monster Mania Artist Commentary - Monarch

When I was a child, I loved to play with bugs and draw bugs and study bugs. My next door neighbor’s house was surrounded by a beautiful flower garden that attracted swarms of bumble bees, grasshoppers, praying mantises and butterflies. It was bug heaven.

But that was the 80s. I rarely see a grasshopper or a monarch butterfly these days. I imagine this Monarch Butterfly has mutated in order to survive global warming and deforestation and droughts and pesticides and herbicides and angry birds and hungry spiders. This Monarch Butterfly’s nectar is human blood. It has seen things and it has done things. Terrible. Horrible. Things. But it is still a beautiful butterfly. 







Popular posts from this blog

Monster Mania Artist Commentary - Monster Plant

Image
This drawing is inspired by carnivorous plants like the Piranha Plant from Super Mario Bros and Audrey II from Little Shop Of Horrors.  The corkscrew pattern of the roots was inspired by Todd McFarlane's "spaghetti webbing" from his Spider-Man comics. My illustration style is an odd mix of cartoonish and realistic elements. In this case, I thought a more stylized depiction of the roots would be more interesting. I wanted the roots to look aggressive and dangerous. I wanted them to have more weight. I wanted them to feel more like doctor octopus' tentacles. I think the more cartoonish approach helps tell a story. Real plant roots just look like dirty pubes. I made the vines and the lips of the monster super veiny to mirror the corkscrew pattern in roots.  When I'm drawing something like a potted plant, I have to find ways to make the drawing more dynamic. I like to add stray drool and debris around my monsters to create more movement and energy. The drawing is less
Read more

Monster Mania Artist Commentary - Zombie Pizza

Image
The first batch of Monster Mania drawings were created for a solo art exhibition at Lawrence Photo Print & Frame in October 2017. This drawing of an anthropomorphic pizza zombie was the first drawing that I created for the series. When I started working on this drawing, I had absolutely no clue what a Monster Mania drawing was. I created the drawing really quickly because I needed a cool promotional image for the exhibition flyer. I didn’t put much thought into it. I just thought it would be fun to draw an anthropomorphic pizza zombie and it would be a really eye-catching image for the flyer. Everyone loves pizza and zombies. Why not mash those two things together? This drawing ended up establishing the overall vibe and aesthetic of the series. After the first drawing was finished, the rules for creating the other drawings became crystal clear to me. The Rules #1 The monster must be isolated against a simple abstract background. The background should not distract from the monster.
Read more

Monster Mania Artist Commentary - My Tumor Face

Image
Several of the drawings in the Monster Mania series fall into the category of body horror and a few of the drawings are self portraits. This one happens to be both.  The pandemic super charged my hypochondriac tendencies and I started imagining all of the fun and interesting ways my body could betray me. I started drawing self portraits depicting tumors and pimples and other gross things growing on my body. I’m also obsessed with the idea of conjoined twins and tumors with creepy little faces. I blame David Cronenberg and John Carpenter.  This drawing was really fun to draw. I always aim for creepy and gross and a little bit cartoonish. I think the more successful drawings are the ones that hit that trifecta. 
Read more