quirky characters....

These are figures that live inside my drawings...

to tell a story.

But they are a little elusive...

a little strange...

and yes, a little illustrative!

The image above is from a series that I did

I few years ago about my papa....

And ill show you more of this series on Friday!

These images above and below

are from a series called

The Kiss (I know)

which was all about The Mafia

and my travels to Sicily in 2005.

I was reading Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb,

when I was asked to participate in an exhibition

that was all about artworks that reference a book!

So this series was born...

These images above and below
are massive drawings that initiated
The Kiss body of work.
They were never shown in that exhibition
but I think I loved them the most!


So so much colour...!
The figures were of African immigrant men who sell blow up balloons
on the beaches of Palermo to make a living.
It's a sad story but they mask their plight by blowing
up these plastic fantastic balloons, and wearing them like a shield...!
Does The Mafia own these men???
I wondered....

And then we come to these odd graffiti figures
in this drawing from The Ipanema series
of works....
It was like 'the birth of man' but in graffiti form!



And finally there was this series
of tiny sketches.
I know you've seen this image before!
I WISH i had some great images of these characters
when they were embroidered!
But unfortunately my camera was ancient back in 2003!
Funny to say that...
but it is true!!