You,

"You make all kinds of different stuff. Are your drawings related to one another?"

Me,

"Yes, they are, thanks for asking. All carry the same themes (some more than others - but they're all in there): sexuality, anatomy, and voyeurism. It's not always obvious, but it's there. Have a look."

I primarily draw on paper because I just it love it to death. Pencil, pen & ink (usually the old fashioned kind with a crowquill dip pen and india ink) sometimes with watercolor over the top. It offers me the immediacy of getting to see what I was thinking about very quickly and the ability to move on to the next image - snappity-snap. Sketchbooks are absolutely central to my art making. I am super particular about the papers and the binding - so over the past 20 years I've learned to bind my own sketchbooks in whatever shapes and sizes I feel like carrying around with me. They're always bound in vegetable tanned Nigerian goatskin with either Fabriano Artistico 90 lb hot-press paper or sometimes Lana Aquarelle. Stitched together with linen threads and tapes and sealed with PVA glue. Occasionally I make 'artist books' (not sketchbooks) - one-of-a-kind books that are pieces of sequential art bound together in a single book. Here's an example.

Other potentially relevant information:

  • I grew up in a suburb north of Milwaukee
  • My dad is an ear, nose and throat surgeon and I still have (and look at) his illustrated medical school textbooks.
  • I liked to spy on my neighbors when I was a kid - just see how other people lived.
  • I made my own fireworks out of other fireworks and raw chemicals.
  • When I was twelve I burned my pink nipple clean off, along with 3rd degree burns on the right side of my chest, all from playing with fireworks. The burnt nipple grew back kind of brown.
  • I didn't take art classes in high school because I was afraid people would think I was a big dummy.
  • [Pre-Sept. 11, 2001] I used to wear disguises for all my driver's license photos.
  • I'm waiting until my kids are older to tell them why my nipples are two different colors.