Upper1percent

Comment

Comment by Kenneth Bays on October 13, 2011 at 12:40am

Thank you very much for your critique, Ms. Resident Curator!  I am much more confident in drawing fantastical creatures and have only recently begun to work on more academic drawings.  This drawing of the upper 1% is a favorite.  Thanks again, and I hope to be posting more work soon.

Comment by Resident Curator on October 12, 2011 at 1:25pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

This piece seems especially relevant in context of Occupy Wall Street.   But while I am enamored with its not so subtle message, I believe it also encapsulates your strengths as a “drawer”.   The figure is bold and graphic- commanding the pictorial space in sheer mass if not by weaponry.  But there’s also an elegant line quality moving throughout his external contour, and in the interior crosshatched shadows.  The pig-figure’s pants are pulled up over his hulking mass, accentuating his bulky proportions.  But the tucked-in tie makes him comical, and almost hapless despite packing a gun and ample cash.  I also enjoy your more academic still life, but those drawings seem to lack the confident line quality that seems to emerge effortlessly from your more fantastical creations.  The more ghastly images of Gunman and zombies are well executed, but I’m more taken in by the implied and restrained horror of the Upper 1 percent.