MOBY-DICK, Page 265

Title: Nor when expandingly lifted by your subject, can you fail to trace out great whales in the starry heavens...

11.25 inches by 8.25 inches
ink and marker on found paper
May 31, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 264

Title: In bony, ribby regions of the earth, where at the base of high broken cliffs masses of rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the plain, you will often discover images as of the petrified forms of the Leviathan partly merged in grass, which of a windy day breaks against them in a surf of green surges.

7.25 inches by 10.25 inches
acrylic paint, charcoal, colored pencil, ink and pencil on found paper
May 31, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 263

Title: Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth...

8 inches by 10.5 inches
ink and marker on found paper
May 30, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 262

Title: It is a quiet noon-scene among the isles of the Pacific; a French whaler anchored, inshore, in a calm, and lazily taking water on board...

8 inches by 6 inches
watercolor on watercolor paper
May 30, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 261

Title: And all the while the thick-lipped Leviathan is rushing through the deep, leaving tons of tumultuous white curds in his wake...

8.5 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, charcoal, colored pencil, ink and pencil on found paper
May 28, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 260

Title: His jets are erect, full, and black like soot...

5 inches by 7.75 inches
ink and marker on found paper
May 27, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 259

Title: For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it, you must needs conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last. True, one portrait may hit the mark much nearer than another, but none can hit it with any very considerable degree of exactness. So there is no earthly way of finding out precisely what the whale really looks like.

9 inches by 12 inches
marker on found paper
May 26, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 258

Title: The living whale, in his full majesty and significance, is only to be seen at sea in unfathomable waters; and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight, like a launched line-of-battle ship...

29.75 inches by 10.75 inches
collage, ink and pencil on found paper
May 26, 2010



A few things concerning this piece. First, the image probably looks very skinny on your screen. That's because it's incredibly huge. Here is a photo of my lovely wife holding it up to show the size, like "the fish that got away" according to her.



Almost 3 feet long and about a foot tall. Huge.

Second, I had to scan this thing in 4 sections and then piece it together bit by bit. It took forever, and there seems to be some slight distortion (weird tapering) near the right top edge of the image. I wanted to get it posted tonight, and it didn't affect the image all that much, so I am posting it as is for now. I'll see if I can figure out why PhotoShop is tapering it like that but it may just have to be that way.

So there you go. The most massive whale I have ever depicted. I am exhausted now. I literally just finished this, and it is now well after 11 pm. Good night.

Oh, almost forgot. The eyes, sketched in pencil on the upper right portion of the image, are an homage to painter Claus Hoie.

MOBY-DICK, Page 257

Title: But the placing of the cap-sheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier, brother to the famous Baron. In 1836, he published a Natural History of Whales, in which he gives what he calls a picture of the Sperm Whale. Before showing that picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for your summary retreat from Nantucket. In a word, Frederick Cuvier's Sperm Whale is not a Sperm Whale, but a squash.

8 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 25, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 256

Title: In the vignettes and other embellishments of some ancient books you will at times meet with very curious touches at the whale, where all manner of spouts, jets d'eau, hot springs and cold, Saratoga and Baden-Baden, come bubbling up from his unexhausted brain.

10.75 inches by 7.75 inches
ink and marker on found paper
May 23, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 255

Title: The Hindoo whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall, depicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of Leviathan, learnedly known as the Matse Avatar.

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, ballpoint pen, colored pencil, ink and marker on found paper
May 23, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 254

Title: It may be worth while, therefore, previously to advert to those curious imaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day confidently challenge the faith of the landsman. It is time to set the world right in this matter, by proving such pictures of the whale all wrong.

10 inches by 7.75 inches
ink on found paper
May 21, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 253

Title: "...but upon the island of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him."

11 inches by 7.75 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 19, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 252

Title: "But, at some distance, Moby Dick rose again, with some tatters of Radney's red woollen shirt, caught in the teeth that had destroyed him."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 18, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 251

Title: "...while the dogged crew eyed askance, and with curses, the appalling beauty of the vast milky mass, that lit up by a horizontal spangling sun, shifted and glistened like a living opal in the blue morning sea."

11 inches by 7.75 inches
acrylic paint, ballpoint pen and ink on found paper
May 17, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 250

Title: "For by a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself seemed to step in to take out of his hands into its own the damning thing he would have done."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 16, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 249

Title: "'Shipmate, I haven't enough twine, - have you any?'"

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 16, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 248

Title: "Steelkilt here hissed out something, inaudible to all but the Captain; who, to the amazement of all hands, started back, paced the deck rapidly two or three times, and then suddenly throwing down his rope, said,'I won't do it - let him go - cut him down: d'ye hear?'"

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, colored pencil and ink on found paper
May 15, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 247

Title: "But all these were collared, and dragged along the deck like dead cattle; and, side by side, were seized up into the mizen rigging, like three quarters of meat, and there they hung till morning."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 15, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 246

Title: "...it was then that Steelkilt proposed to the two Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed with their keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements with a handle at each end) run a muck from the bowsprit to the taffrail..."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, ballpoint pen, collage and ink on found paper
May 15, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 245

Title: "'Shall we?' cried the ringleader to his men."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 14, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 244

Title: "...while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, charcoal and colored pencil on found paper
May 12, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 243

Title: "The brigandish guise which the Canaller so proudly sports; his slouched and gaily-ribboned hat betoken his grand features."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 11, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 242

Title: "...the holy-of-holies of great forests..."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 9, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 241

Title: "Immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch spouting blood like a whale."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, collage and ink on found paper
May 9, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 240

Title: "Intolerably striding along the deck, the mate commanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks, and also a shovel, and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a pig to run at large."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
May 9, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 239

Title: "Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band, the Lakeman went forward all panting, and sat himself down on the windlass; his face fiery red, his eyes bloodshot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his brow..."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, colored pencil and ink on found paper
May 8, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 238

Title: "...at all events Steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a head like a Roman, and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings of your last viceroy's snorting charger..."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, collage and ink on found paper
May 8, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 237

Title: "...they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as direful as any that lash the salted wave..."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ballpoint pen on found paper
May 7, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 236

Title: ...had it not been for the brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate...

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, collage and ink on found paper
May 7, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 235

Title: For my humor's sake, I shall preserve the style in which I once narrated it at Lima, to a lounging circle of my Spanish friends, one saint's eve, smoking upon the thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn. Of those fine cavaliers, the young Dons, Pedro and Sebastian, were on the closer terms with me...

5 inches by 8 inches
ink and marker on found paper
May 5, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 234

Title: It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho, was encountered. She was manned almost wholly by Polynesians.

11 inches by 7.75 inches
acrylic paint, ink and marker on found paper
May 3, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 233

Title: And often you will notice that being conscious of the eyes of the whole visible world resting on him from the sides of the two ships, this standing captain is all alive to the importance of sustaining his dignity by maintaining his legs.

8 inches by 12 inches
ink and marker on found paper
May 2, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 232

Title: And as for Pirates, when they chance to cross each other's cross-bones, the first hail is — "How many skulls?"

10.75 inches by 15.75 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
May 1, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 231

Title: Besides, the English whalers sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over the American whalers...

7.5 inches by 10.75 inches
colored pencil, ink and marker on found paper
May 1, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 230

Title: Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing eastward we could for ever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in the voyage.

12 inches by 8 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
May 1, 2010