Failed Scratchboard #7

Someday my spring will come, and with it perhaps, a prince.

6" x 6" masonite painted with acrylic and lovingly worked until satisfaction.

Failed Scratchboard #6

Driving at night during a snowstorm. Hypnotic. Headlights illuminating flakes hurling toward me, when in reality I am the one being hurled - into a tunnel of snow. Snow-spotted void. 

6" x 6" masonite painted with acrylic and worked over until it cried "uncle".

Failed Scratchboard #5

This is winter: gray, vertical tree trunks, salty roads, piles of dirty snow, people dressed in black.

6" x 6" masonite panel painted with acrylic and worked with patience.

Failed Scratchboard #4

Fish in the sea, are there always more? In the darkness I see jellyfish, I see herring, I see whales and vast schools whirling, silver bodies shooting forward in arched trajectories. . . 

6" x 6" masonite painted with acrylic, brought to life with faith and intuition.

Failed Scratchboard #3

Have you ever walked the cement canyons of Manhattan in the small hours of the night?

6" x 6" masonite, painted with acrylic and worked with determination.

Failed Scratchboard #2

Perhaps this could be a colorful slub in the warp and weft of a winter coat.

6" x 6" masonite panel, acrylic paint, and a lot of frustrated gouging, scraping, and smearing.

Failed Scratchboard #1

I tried making my own scratchboards, painting masonite with plaster-loaded gesso, then with gel medium darkened with india ink. The result was an impenetrable surface. And so "gougeboard" was invented. Being a good sport, not one to let failure deter, I commenced to gouge, scrape, smear, rub and generally work the surface until I'd had enough. The result are seven confused-looking abstract panels, children of these dark winter days.

This is a 6" x 6" sheet of masonite, painted with acrylic. It is number one in a series of seven.

Sake Flask and Cups

Through the ages, in every land, people have sought to create an elixir that would dispel the pain of life. Though ingenious and delightful, every invention has been little more than a poor replacement for mother's milk - that thoroughly satisfying taste of relief and love, which we first enjoy as newborns. 

This is a 5.5" x 8.5" scratchboard drawing, intended for the January Black & White Show at Danbury Art Frame.