Florescent Dancer

After college I didn’t return to the dancing theme until I made this painting around 1993. I bought some florescent and iridescent paints at the art supply store after seeing a demonstration using iridescent paints. I thought the paints would work well with my dancing theme. One problem I ran into was that the iridescent colors need dark colors to be visible. When my fellow artists saw my painting they were very intrigued. They told me it looked like
a mummy.


acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40"

Electric Dancer

Again I used colored inks, for this piece, but this time we used rubber cement to preserve the white of the paper. This time however, we were asked to add conte crayon on top. This turned out to be my favorite project of that semester.

So where did the word “electric” come from? In the film “Fame,” from the 80s, there was a song called “I Sing The Body Electric.” A student at my high school sang the song at an assembly one time. Anyway, when I finished the piece I thought about the song.


mixed media on illustration board, 35" x 32"

Mystic Dancer

This was the next Freehand III project. We were shown how to work with colored inks using an airbrush over a stencil. So, I made a stencil version of the figure wrapped in music. Adding white ink to the work made this piece exciting for me. I love the mood created by layering the inks.


ink on illustration board, 14" x 16"

Disco Demon

In Freehand III the art professor had us pick a theme that we would use for the rest of the semester. I chose dancing because it was something I enjoyed doing. At fraternity parties I enjoyed being out on the dance floor. Anyway, I chose to go with a cheerful theme.

My first drawing didn’t go over well with the art professor. He considered it too “cartoonish.” That criticism left me extremely frustrated. We talked about solutions. He suggested I try to make the music a physical object around a figure. So, I played with that idea. Well, the result is this drawing below. I’ve continued to experiment with the image and translate into other media.


charcoal on paper, 29" x 36.25"

Dance Man

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Dance Energy

This is a piece I painted in the fall of 1985. It was a follow up to “Electric Dancer.”

In early 1987 the piece went missing from my studio at Mississippi State. I only have a slide of the piece.


acrylic & alkyd on canvas, 22" x 28"

Bump

colored pencil on paper, 16.75" x 20.75"

Jump

colored pencil on paper, 16.75" x 20.75"

Ravin' Russel

mixed media on paper, 14.5" x 19"

Dancer Pieces at the Westwego Art Center

Three dancer pieces are now on exhibit at the Westwego Art Center. It has been a while since I've shown these. They were completed in late 2000 around the time of my foot surgery.

Ravin' Reba

mixed media on paper, 14.5" x 19"

Ravin' Raymond

mixed media on paper, 14.5" x 19"

Slam Dancin'

graphite on paper, 17.5" x 19.75"

Stomp

graphite on paper, 16" x 20.75"