The Inbetween

In the winter of 2011, I began work on this piece. After gathering lots of visual research and, after having made a handful of smaller drawings in a similar vein, I set out to push both the scale and vision of the drawings within that body of work.

Loosely based on Purgatory, The In-Between is a land on the brink of some sort of cataclysm. With a giant wave on the right, a fierce storm on the left and a fire beneath, everything within is on the verge of collapse. At the top rests a god of sorts, resting on his/her choir of worshippers and cloud-like structures. Everything is toppling inward on itself, yet know seems to realize it.

Each tiny inch of this drawing is packed with imagery and small stories. I wanted to make something that demands the viewers attention while going beyond being merely a big, obsessive spectacle. I wanted it to become more than just a large doodle, which hopefully I've succeeded at achieving.

Below are photos of the drawing in progress so you can see the work's evolution. The in progress photos were photograhed rather haphazardly as my focus was on working, but they do give a sense of how the work developed.