I created a body of work in “paper sculpture” in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, I had not seen any other work by other artists in this medium. Since then, many fine artists have taken this medium to great heights. The problem with this work is that it has to be mounted or framed to protect the fragile paper. I took it upon myself to learn how to make custom acrylic boxes to hold each sculpture. This expense was too much in the long run, and I had to stop making the sculptures. You can see […]
My Scratchboard Work
In my career as an illustrator, I turned to scratchboard as a dramatic way of depicting ideas. All of my scratchboard pieces were published, usually as the main illustration and often as supplementary spot illustrations. “Garden Tools,” shown here, probably accompanied a newspaper Spring or Summer gardening article. This is one of my best in terms of quality. Good drawing, great lighting, interesting textures, and strong compositional lines convey the essence of the serious gardener and, in this case, her tools. It almost makes you want to be a gardener. More examples of my scratchboard work can be found here.
My Crayon Drawings
My early days as an artist without means meant I would find ways to do art without much expense. After kindergarten, no one used crayons to create art. As a young man of 20, out of necessity, I created a large portfolio of crayon drawings. My method was to layer the crayon, one color over another. Using a tool such as a stylus or even a screwdriver, I would carve the upper layers away to create the final piece. When I finished, I placed the drawing in a hot oven for a moment to set the crayon onto the paper […]
Don’t Come Too Close
Best to just hunker down and keep your distance.
The Fall of Gods
This is a digital collage made using text prompts in an AI image generator. It was then collaged in Photoshop from several images. It was further painted and filtered in PS. All of this was an exploration of AI.
Untitled #22 (Strong Box)
“Untitled #22” (Strong Box 22), digital collage
Angel in the Parlour
Images of angels speak of purity, divinity, and transcendence. Artist Robert Lewis’ Untitled #37 (“Angels”) a digital collage, challenges this traditional perception of angels by depicting two quasi-anthropomorphic, ephemeral images that resemble angels but are not truly angelic in nature. I will explore the philosophical implications of this digital collage and what it reveals about our understanding of the divine, the ephemeral, and the human condition. Lewis’ collages often use some images created with carefully crafted text prompts in a variety of AI applications. He makes it practice to never use AI as a standalone version of himself. That is, […]
Plein Air Easton 2008
“I was the only son of my mother and father, and I was exceedingly aspiring, and my daring was very great. I thought there was no enterprise in the world too mighty for me….and after I had achieved all the adventures that were in my own country, I equipped myself, and…at length it chanced that I came to the fairest valley in the world…” -Thomas Bulfinch (1796–1867). Age of Fable: Vol. III: The Age of Chivalry. 1913. The following is an account of my trip to compete in Plein Air Easton 2008 in Easton, Maryland. Plein Air Easton is a plein air […]