“Innocence?”

Continuing experiments with rag paper. Acrylic Paint Pen for one. Charcoal and a small amount of spray paint for the other. A4.

This is an odd picture in many regards. The acrylic paint pen and UV piece shows an expanded view of the charcoal drawing. I have really determined now that the pens and this paper are just not a good mix. In the original photo, I have an incredibly red face from sunburn. Lobster red, no lie. I still remember the t-shirt. “House Wrecker For Rent”.

This was at an age when I still had some semblance of innocence, but it was definitely questionable. I had, as they say, “Seen some shit” by then, though I had not experieced direct abuse. The charcoal drawing is one of my favourite pieces altogether. Even though it’s an experiment, a rough for a future idea, I regard this as the definitive piece for “Innocence?”. I still had a childlike zeal for life, but I no longer had to question whether there are bad people.

The eyes on the Pen drawing give the suggestion that some innocence is lost. Not all, but some.

The charcoal, with the shading and placement of spray paint, I feel represents that duality best. You could point to this period of my life and say that’s roughly when the schism occurred; a moment before innocence was fully broken and the real truth of the world became apparent. This is more apparent under UV, where parts of the shading are heavily darkened by UV absorption.