That title is a quote attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat, an incredible artist who's professional career began when I was 5 and ended tragically in 1988 with a speedball overdose. The title is mostly ironic because as a person and artist I am nothing like Basquiat. It's also an appropriate title because every time one of my graphic design clients sees my "finer" artwork they are always surprised. The assumption seems to be that if I can make "fine" art, I should be doing so full-time, and must be frustrated or dissatisfied with having to work a regular job - which is entirely untrue.  I love my job and the work I do.  I also see the how limiting my "fine" art creation to 20% or less of my waking life brings a focus to my work.  It works out that the stuff I've created since my daughter was born is about 80% thought, 10% experimentation and 10% execution.  I like the results.

Back in 1998 I had a weekend job for a company that staged mini trade shows in shopping malls around the country. I would fly into a major city, rent a car and drive out to whitebread suburban town X. I always stayed at Motel 6 or Super 8 or whatever was cheapest. Other than setup, solving minor problems and teardown the rest of the time was mine to explore the local community. This particular weekend I was near StLouis, MO. I drove into the downtown early saturday morning and was surprized to find parking on the street right in front of Union Station. I had (damn good) coffee and eggs benedict at the fancy hotel next to Union Station and then tore off to see the park and check out that arch thing.  Now I've stood next to the Sears Tower and other things much bigger than the StLouis Arch, but in it's park setting, standing beneath it's gleaming steel and looking up, well it's damn impressive - and beautiful.  I didn't get a chance to ride the elevator, but I basked in the Arch's glory on a warm sunny day.  The rest of the trip was incredibly boring as most of these trips were. The show had to be packed up early sunday, so that evening I sat in front of the mirror in my dingy motel room and made this sketch.  My intent at the time was to capture the tension of my hand pressing into and distorting my face, but as usual I got enthralled with capturing subtle values and lost interest in the challenge of rendering the rest of my hand.  Still having the impressive arch gleaming in my brain, I finished the line of my finger with a quick impression of the Arch's form and went to bed.

The basic idea for this drawing came from a habit I have of looking toward the sun, using my thumb or finger to block out it's light. This helps me see things that are close to the sun in a composition. Just like shading your eyes but with a single digit.

It is charcoal on a toothy 100% cotton cold press paper.
IMA is my acronym for "Insecurity and the Mask of Ambition", the name I gave to  the art after drawing it and expanding the idea into a triptych.