Tag: Visual Art

Mean Mr. Mustard

Pastel on paper. 22″ x 20″. 2008.

I drew this in 2008 for an elective class I had at Berklee called “John Lennon Songwriting,” where we learned all about the Beatles, John, and his solo career.

This depicts the character from the song of the same name on Abbey Road. The ten bob note in his nose, saving up to buy some clothes, the hole in the road where he sleeps, and the shop where his sister, Pam, works are all in the picture. A ten bob note is a ten shilling note, currency in England until they stopped using it in 1970.

Mary Beth

Mixed media on particle board. 30″ x 24″. 2004.

Mary Beth was in my AP Art class my senior year, and one day we all decided to use the other students as models. In this piece, she’s depicted multiple times as light and dark while she creates her own piece.

Art is about expression, and since we live in duality, I wanted to showcase the duality in her emotional expression.

Loading In

Chalk pastel on paper. 24″ x 18″. 2005.

I drew this my senior year of high school, in my second year of AP Art. My concentration was “Life as a Musician,” because I was very in love with music at the time, and I still am. I had also decided by then that I wanted to go to Berklee, so I drew what I thought life as a songwriter and gigging musician would be like.

Its themes were record contracts and dealing with industry greed, addiction, hard work, insecurity, and celebrity, among others. Loading In was the hard work piece.

Unfortunately, this is the only piece from the concentration that survives. It isn’t my favorite of the lot, but I guess it’s something to remember the whole thing by.

I & Eye

Charcoal on paper. 21″ x 15.5″. 2004.

I drew this during a summer semester at SCAD in Savannah.

Rastafari say “I and I” where the rest of us would say “we” or “us”. The belief underneath it is that there is no separate speaker and listener, only the same self showing up twice. It runs parallel to In Lak’ech Ala K’in, a Mayan phrase usually given in English as “I am another you.” Two different traditions, the same idea: oneness, and the sense that the person across from you is not really across from you.

I was discovering that philosophy around the time I made this, so I named it accordingly.

Drawn in 2004, photographed for archival in 2026, and shared here for the first time.

Bermuvibe 3

Acrylic on canvas. 19.5″ x 29.5″. Framed 28″ x 38″. 2003.

This one is Surf Side Beach, which was my favorite beach on the island.

There were never a lot of people there. A boiler reef sits close enough to the shore to snorkel out to, and the waves were easy enough to boogie board on.

The first of these came from a photo of a street. The second was a commission. This one is a place I picked myself.

Third of three, and the last one that was still in the archive.

Painted in 2003, photographed for archival in March 2026, and shared here for the first time.

Bermuvibe 3, acrylic on canvas, 2003. The painted surface without the frame.
Bermuvibe 3, unframed.

Bermuvibe 2

Acrylic on canvas. 29.5″ x 19.5″. Framed 38″ x 28″. 2003.

This one was a commission.

I lived in Bermuda. The colors come out of that, but they are imagined. None of it is what anything actually looked like, and that was deliberate. I was not trying to document a house. I wanted the painting to carry what the place felt like.

This is the second of three Bermuda paintings I made. The first went up here earlier this month, and the third followed it.

Painted in 2003, photographed for archival in February 2026, and shared here for the first time.

Bermuvibe 2, acrylic on canvas, 2003. The painted surface without the frame.
Bermuvibe 2, unframed.