For the Disrespected, and Rejected. For the Angry, and So-Called Crazy.

2015

graphite, illustration pen, India ink, tea stain, watercolor, gesso, black wood stain, quoache, wheat-pasted tracing paper, and wheat-pasted cardboard on paper.

34 1/2x22 1/2x7in.

There were no initial sketches for this work, just straight to the page, but that means that there were several iterations before the final product. There was a version where the figure was wearing burial clothes and the border around him was implied to be his coffin which is why there’s not bottom to the border to continue on with the rest of his body out of frame. I decided against the suit and tie to show the decay in his body to match the face. This work continues with the ideas of individuality and where that line is blurred once a person enters a group with a different opinion. The decaying figure and the grime washing over him is a representation a person’s characteristics seen as undesirable by the masses. Sometimes these personality traits are core parts of what makes a person who they are yet seen as a waste by others. In other words, who this person is should be left to rot, forgotten, also alluded to by the faceless skull and zippered mouth. Denying someone to be who they are can leave a person trapped, therefore the second half of the title describes the frustration that comes with mass nonacceptance and restriction of a person’s essential make-up along with a majority’s inability or refusal to empathize.