In 2009 I  returned to my hometown of West Chester, PA from decades in Los Angeles and other cities. I was quickly reunited through Facebook groups with my grade school and high school friends. Brian was very active in these reunions by forming a Saint Agnes grade school alumni group on Facebook. We all had strong bonds with each other from those years at Saint Agnes because there were maybe only 100 of us in our grade and we went through each grade together.

In 2011, after a couple reunion I was asked by Brian to do a drawing that would commemorate the long construction project on his families home outside of Philadelphia. He wanted to recognize all the hard work of his construction crew. He was also hands-on much of the project including operating heavy equipment. It seemed like a grown-up kids dream to be involved in so many parts of the construction and landscaping. Much like what I do with my artwork.

Brian remembered on of my best drawings from probably 5th grade at Saint Agnes. It was an 8.5" x 11" horizontal pencil drawing on yellow drawing paper. I love yellow. 

It was full of construction workers building a crazy tangled network of wood planks and studs. It was inspired by my dad's endless building projects around our homes and his impressive skills and tenacity.  We moved three times and he remodeled each home extensively. He loved to build. He would never stop helping us and his extended family with his building projects even though he worked full time at other jobs. This later drawing has the energy and color that Brian and I remember.

The exaggeration  of this early drawing was further inspired by the Three Stooges episode where Curly is plumber adding endless pipe fittings to stop the flow of water from a fixture in the tub he's standing in. Eventually Curly is caged by his own creation and I remember I drew that too, but with wood.

I was shocked and delighted that Brian recalled this drawing! Unfortunately, I did not have that drawing anymore. In Los Angeles in 2004, at the beginning my marriage separation during a move out from our apartment, I sadly threw out much of my portfolio in a bout of sadness. I blamed my obsession with art at making my economic life difficult in supporting my wife and her new idea to have children which we didn't plan on when we got married.

All the work I had done from 2nd grade until my senior year in college (Temple Universities,Tyler School of Art) was gone. I did save everything after that because I felt I might need it to find another job in my career.

Back to 2010, even though Brian, wanted something small I was driven to recreate what I had foolishly thrown away. I wanted to make something bigger and better than what I had. The truth is that grade school drawing and many others were priceless to me and can never be replaced. There's something about capturing the innocence and development of ours minds in our art that is absolutely priceless.

For Brian's new commission, I first did small rough pencil sketches to work out the whole composition and orientation. The vertical format seemed to work best because it heightens the exaggerated growth, which even Brian expressed seemed like his project, lasting many years, seemed to spiral out of control. Also although the property is large its still hemmed into a compact upscale neighborhood. Once I decided on the vertical orientation and the controlled chaos (a wacky of Tower of Babel metaphor) I started to focus on the details. One detail was how I included the toppled chess pieces to signify the logic gone wild in the extensiveness of his project. 

I researched and developed as many crazy contraptions related to construction as I could. I was inspired grade school art from saturday morning cartoons like the Wacky Racers, Odd Rods, Silly Cycles, Mad Magazine, and more.

I even included a reference to Michelangelo painted by Raphael in his painting School of Athens. To show how I put myself into a mental isolation to focus and record the crowd of activity around me. 

To get the details I drew each character and machine on separate pieces on tracing paper. I then photographed them and brought them into photoshop and assembled the whole picture. I adjusted the size, proportions, and positions. I don't have pictures of that process but here's a similar process from a later commission.

But I wanted to give Brian an original piece of hand drawn art not a digital art. 

So once I was happy with the whole picture I printed it out at 18" x 24" and then redrew the whole thing using a Faber-Castell Brush Pen which is a black ink marker. I really like the line and control I can get using their markers. This is 2011 version I delivered.

Brian and his crew were amazed and very happy with final piece.  Later Brian threw some wonderful summer picnic parties with some amazing and well known folk artists including Darden Smith and Pierce Petit to perform in his backyard.

I always want to color this. So when I bought the iPad Pro in 2018, along with the drawing software Procreate, this was a perfect opportunity to experiment with color.  I tried their faces and dogs but it got too complex.

I still consider this digital color version a color study because I have this printed out on Fabriano 300 lb cold press watercolor paper with the beautiful rough texture. I want to paint it with watercolor following my color study so I can get the wonderful watercolor effects too.

This piece has great summer memories, reunions with my childhood school friends, and a recreation of a special lost artwork. For me this art turned out to be ongoing. It's an exercise in relishing the arc of life which has become central to my style. Here's a process document describing this type of work. I plan to make this into a specialized business similar to my donor recognition displays done for hospitals and universities.