A few weeks back I finished a series of drawings I call “Puppet Pal Friends Be Dues Paying Dudes”. These drawings were meant as a reintroduction to abstract drawing and paintings after a year of doing predominately representations works of landscapes and flowers. The title of the series stems from the Puppet Pal Friends cartoon within a cartoon – if you are a fan of the early Cartoon Network series Dexter’s Laboratory you’ll get the reference. I’ve been doing the Puppet Pal drawing series for about 4 years now although last year I took the year off. They are a way for me to experiment gesturally and speak to myself using unintelligible script where I hash out the many personal issues I may be going through at any particular time. In this case, the unending “dues” one has to pay in life to live a normal life.
I think gesturally this series feels very global in how I dealt with the picture plane. In the past objects appeared more or less as separates that might have been linked by a tangle or line. In this series I tended to make environments, like cave setting, where colors and gestures coalesced. It seems to be where my mind is right now after doing a year of landscapes.
Here is the series
I’ve been in a Queen sort of mood lately. I think its because of the Bohemian Rhapsody movie – which as an aside is far from perfect from a gay perspective. Anyway I was thinking of the Queen album “A Night at the Opera” particularly the incredibly baroque song “The Prophets Song” Here’s a YouTube video of it.
Okay I have about 7 paintings I’m working on at once that I’m working hard to complete before those personal dues I’m paying sets in. They will be mostly flower paintings and a large moon piece. As I complete these works I’ll post my progress, until then do be well.
Anthony Smith Jr. 