AGAIN, ALLIGATORS: Alligator

The final piece in this series. It turned out slightly more fantastic than I had initially anticipated, but I think it works well within the context of the series of illustrations. My wife really liked this one, so she claimed it right away.

ALLIGATOR

15 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, charcoal, ink, marker, mucus, pencil and rain on watercolor paper
October 31, 2012

AGAIN, ALLIGATORS: United States

There's a lot of venom in this piece. I don't like to address political matters much in my art, or online, but I live in what is often referred to as a "battleground state." What that means is that throughout the month of October, which was a challenging month for me anyway, we were absolutely assaulted by a neverending barrage of radio and television ads, mailers, door to door campaigners, billboards, op eds, and so on. I despise politicians under the best of circumstances, and the events of that month filled me with so much impotent fury that I was choking on it. Elections, especially national elections, are rarely more than choosing between which candidate is the least deceptive, disingenuous, repulsively self-interested, power hungry, and willing to commit any offense to gain influence and wealth. They sicken me, the lot of them, and Hell is too good a place for them.

See what I mean? I don't like what thinking about politicians does to me. But a lot of that came out in this piece, the third of four visual reactions to The Alligators of Abraham. Somehow though, all that venom and hatred and fury produced a solid piece of art. So for that, I am appreciative.

UNITED STATES

15 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, ash, blood, charcoal, ink, marker and pencil on paper
October 28, 2012

AGAIN, ALLIGATORS: The Woman

THE WOMAN

15 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, ink, marker and pencil on watercolor paper
October 27, 2012

AGAIN, ALLIGATORS: The Millionaires

In October, I was invited by author Robert Kloss and the web site Sundog Lit to create some kind of work reacting to Robert's amazing new novel The Alligators of Abraham, which I had also created the cover and three interior illustrations for, in any way I saw fit. This kind of artistic freedom is very rare, so the opportunity excited me. Robert asked me to focus specifically on the final section of the book and rather than simply visually depict portions of the narrative, I took a different approach. I read and re-read that section several times and took the ideas and impressions I drew from those readings and gave them visual form. Not quite a re-mix or even an interpretation, more a reaction or a visual conversation with the text and the author. I'm very proud of these and think that the four pieces I created were a new plateau for me. Since they've been posted on the Sundog Lit site for almost two weeks now, I thought I would post them here as well. Here is the first of those four, and if you like these, you should really track down The Alligators of Abraham. It is phenomenal.

THE MILLIONAIRES

15 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, blood, ink, marker and pencil on watercolor paper
October 20, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 040

Title: "'Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 27, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 039

Title: "'Ivory,' jerked the nephew; 'lots of it -- prime sort -- lots -- most annoying, from him.'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 27, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 038

Title: "One evening as I was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approaching -- and there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. I laid my head on my arm again, and had nearly lost myself in a doze, when somebody said in my ear, as it were: 'I am as harmless as a little child, but I don't like to be dictated to. Am I the manager -- or am I not? I was ordered to send him there. It's incredible.'...I became aware that the two were standing on the shore alongside the forepart of the steamboat, just below my head. I did not move; it did not occur to me to move: I was sleepy."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 21, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 037

Title: "Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, a visitation. It came in sections during the next three weeks, each section headed by a donkey carrying a white man in new clothes and tan shoes, bowing from that elevation right and left to the impressed pilgrims."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 21, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 036

Title: "This was the foreman -- a boiler-maker by trade -- a good worker. He was a lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. His aspect was worried, and his head was as bald as the palm of my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down to his waist."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 18, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 035

Title: "There was an old hippo that had the bad habit of getting out on the bank and roaming at night over the station grounds. The pilgrims used to turn out in a body and empty every rifle they could lay hands on at him. Some even had sat up o' nights for him. All this energy was wasted, though. 'That animal has a charmed life...'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
November 17, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 034

Title: "What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven! Rivets. To get on with the work -- to stop the hole. Rivets I wanted. There were cases of them down at the coast -- cases -- piled up -- burst -- split! You kicked a loose rivet at every second step in that station-yard on the hillside. Rivets had rolled into the grove of death. You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down -- and there wasn't one rivet to be found where it was wanted."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 14, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 033

Title: "We live, as we dream -- alone..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 13, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 032

Title: "I had my shoulders against the wreck of my steamer, hauled up on the slope like a carcass of some big river animal. The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove! was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek. The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver -- over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple, over the great river I could see through a sombre gap glittering, glittering, as it flowed broadly by without a murmur."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 13, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 031

(This is the piece that I worked on during yet another blackout. I wrote a bit about that and posted a few images, including this piece in progress, in this post.)

Title: "Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through that dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart -- its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 13, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 030

Title: "Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was sombre -- almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 9, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 029

Title: "The business intrusted to this fellow was the making of bricks -- so I had been informed; but there wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station, and he had been there more than a year -- waiting."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 3, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 028

Title: "The flame had leaped high, driven everybody back, lighted up everything -- and collapsed."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 027

Title: "They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 026

Title: "Then he began again, assuring me Mr. Kurtz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the Company..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 025

Title: "He was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe. But even at these times the rest of his person seemed to disclaim the intention. Otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy -- a smile -- not a smile -- I remember it, but I can't explain. It was unconscious, this smile was, though just after he had said something it got intensified for an instant. It came at the end of his speeches like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 024

Title: "One of them, a stout, excitable chap with black moustaches, informed me with great volubility and many digressions, as soon as I told him who I was, that my steamer was at the bottom of the river."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 29, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 023

Title: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 25, 2012

"The Alligators of Abraham" cover, complete

Thanks to good friends Diane Chonette of Tin House Books, Andy Bennett, Tom Williams, and especially Carlette Jewell, each of whom helped me out a great deal with the digital side of things, the hand-drawn and hand-assembled full cover for Robert Kloss' book The Alligators of Abraham is complete. I'm really quite proud of it, and it turned out exactly as I had imagined.

More on "The Alligators of Abraham" by Robert Kloss

One of the first creative opportunities to come my way once my book Moby-Dick in Pictures had been released was the chance to create the cover for Robert Kloss' phenomenal Civil War novel The Alligators of Abraham. I wasn't sure what to expect when asked to do this, so I agreed before even reading the work. After reading it though, I was certain I had made the right decision and that in a sense my path lay directly through this novel. To be blunt, the book blew my head apart. It is honestly one of the most visceral, powerful, visionary, lacerating, gut-wrenching fever dreams I have ever experienced. Some stories claim to offer hope, or joy, or a glimpse into the lives of others. Not this one. The Alligators of Abraham offers blood and smoke and slime and war and hate and violence and lust and greed and murder, but more so than any of those, it offers the reader Knowledge. It is that important. Creating the cover was an honor, and I was so gripped by what I had read that I offered to create three interior illustrations to lead off each of the three sections. Here is my cover, along with the three interior pieces.

And all of this work is finally bearing fruit. First you can, and should, pre-order the book from Mud Luscious Press at that link. Second, the savage "scorched earth literature" magazine Sundog Lit has started posting a series of texts and other works inspired by The Alligators of Abraham right here. First up is a reading of a portion of the text with an accompanying video by Sean Kilpatrick. I will have a few additional pieces of art, this time reactions to and explorations of the text, in early November on that same page. I will post a link here when they go up.

Finally, there is an excellent book trailer video using incredible images from the Civil War set to a suitably grim song. It's on that page but I am including it here because it does a perfect job setting the scene for the novel.

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 022

Title: "In the steady buzz of flies the homeward-bound agent was lying finished and insensible; the other, bent over his books, was making correct entries of perfectly correct transactions..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 24, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 021

Title: "It was hot there, too; big flies buzzed fiendishly, and did not sting, but stabbed."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 24, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 020

Title: "When near the buildings I met a white man, in such an unexpected elegance of get-up that in the first moment I took him for a sort of vision. I saw a high starched collar, white cuffs, a light alpaca jacket, snowy trousers, a clean necktie, and varnished boots. No hat. Hair parted, brushed, oiled, under a green-lined parasol held in a big white hand. He was amazing, and had a penholder behind his ear."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 23, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 019

Title: "They were dying slowly -- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 23, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 018

Title: "Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 21, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 017

Title: "A slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 19, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 016

Title: "I had my passage on a little sea-going steamer. Her captain was a Swede, and knowing me for a seaman, invited me on the bridge. He was a young man, lean, fair, and morose, with lanky hair and a shuffling gait."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 19, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 015

Title: "Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech -- and nothing happened. Nothing could happen."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 17, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 014

Title: "There it is before you -- smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, 'Come and find out.'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 17, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 013

(This illustration is also known as The Joe Kuth Memorial Barbecue.)

Title: "Something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 11, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 012

Title: "...and then with a certain eagerness asked me whether I would let him measure my head."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 10, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 011

Title: "In the outer room the two women knitted black wool feverishly."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 9, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 010

Title: "...on one end a large shining map, marked with all the colours of a rainbow. There was a vast amount of red -- good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and, on the East Coast, a purple patch, to show where the jolly pioneers of progress drink the jolly lager-beer. However, I wasn't going into any of these. I was going into the yellow. Dead in the centre. And the river was there -- fascinating -- deadly -- like a snake."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 3, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 009

Title: "In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 2, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 008

Title: "...the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens. Yes, two black hens."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 007

Title: "But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked at the map of it in a shop-window, it fascinated me..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
August 29, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 006

Title: "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force -- nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 28, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 005

Title: "Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him -- all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 26, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 004

Title: But Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine.

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 26, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 003

Title: "And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 25, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 002

Title: Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol.

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 25, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 001

Let's try this again, shall we? And this time, everything worked out just fine, so these next 100 illustrations will definitely be in the upcoming book from Tin House.

Title: A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless...

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
August 25, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 023

Title: "Can't say I saw any road or any upkeep, unless the body of a middle-aged negro, with a bullet-hole in the forehead, upon which I absolutely stumbled three miles farther on, may be considered as a permanent improvement."

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
July 2, 2012