Artist R.L. Gibson

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Artist R.L. Gibson

Category: DIKY

SHOT from the HIP

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Inspiration Photo for "Shot from the Hip"--a part of the DO I KNOW YOU? series by Artist R.L. GibsonTRUE LOVE
departed

My grandparents divorced when my father was a teenager.  While my grandmother was bitter, Dad felt under-appreciated & Uncle Darryl sulked, I just thought Grandpa was  faux-grouchy prankster.

Our days were filled with ice cream trips, tickle fights, playing house–and the eyebrows.  He had the craziest eyebrows EVER.  He would drag his fingers across his brow bone until they met in the middle.  The resulting woolly-worm brows sent me into an endless spiral of giggling.

He re-married the lovely Anna who developed severe rheumatoid arthritis at a very young age.  She suffered dozens of surgeries & joint replacements only to lose most of her mobility.  He happily waited on her hand & foot.  He carried her to & from bed.  He cut her food.  He colored her hair.

He LOVED her.  I loved him.

 

At 69, Anna left this world too soon. A few months later after a routine hip surgery, he developed staphylococcal meningitis.  His body just quit.  The piece inspired by this photograph is entitled “Shot from the Hip,” and the show of which it is a part, Do I Know You? opens in July of 2014 at The Balcony Gallery at The Emporium Center in Knoxville, TN.

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Bated Breath.

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Mary Magdaline Horton Baker inspires Artist R.L. Gibson's DO I KNOW YOU? seriesmeet
MAGGIE B.

My great aunt Mary Magdalene Horton Baker was a hoot.  She was divorced young and never re-married or had children of her own.  My father, uncle and cousin were HER children, of sorts, but mostly it was ME.  She was a leather-tanned wild woman with bleached hair, skin-tight jeans and a bikini top well into her 60s.  She was the life of EVERY party, and EVERYONE was invited.  I remember the devilish smile and the pooh-poohing of the convention espoused by all the other adults in my life.

So, as a kid in our family, all I really wanted to do was wait until she got off the swing shift to pick me up at midnight in her convertible with the leopard seat covers.  We would make our way to her feather painted bedroom & climb into her bed with the red velvet headboard & watch the then, new-fangled “cable TV” & eat cocktail shrimp out of the can.

In July 2005, Maggie B. died of acute respiratory failure due to  a 3-year battle with emphysema.  She was a social smoker for 60+years but never seemed to have a health concerns.  Then at 78 her body just stopped co-operating & said “Enough” despite the fact that she wasn’t done living.  I love her so much.  This is a pic of her (late-1970s) at approx. 55 years old.

The piece inspired by this photograph is entitled “Bated Breath,” and the show of which it is a part, Do I Know You? opens in July of 2014 at The Balcony Gallery at The Emporium Center in Knoxville, TN.

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Pass the Bottle

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Inspiration for the DIKY series by Artist R.L. Gibson!Progress…

I am making progress on the “Do I Know You?” series.  I completed the first stage of a piece named Pass the Bottle last night.  And, while I can’t share it until closer to the July 4th show opening (at The Balcony Gallery at The Emporium Center in Knoxville, TN), I can show you one of my inspirations.

Meet Darryl
6 months
March 1949

 

He was a beautiful child, and as an adult he became the ever-popular sideshow exhibit known as Uncle Darryl.  He was a wonderfully and wildly-inappropriate adult influence on me by most measures, and absentee parent to his only child.  I thought the world was a much better place with him in it.  He helped me successfully make a huge decision at age 13 that probably saved my life.

He physically survived a tour in Vietnam and mentally endured the aftermath of physical injury, PTSD & chemical contaminants with the only tools at his disposal—-a doting mother & many a liquor bottle.

In April of 2006, a heart attack ended the suffering he endured from a decade-long battle with cirrhosis of the liver.  He was 56 years old.  He betrayed his body after his brain betrayed him.  I love & miss him.  I SO wish he were here to be a questionable influence on MY child.

The “Do I Know You?” series will feature an image saluting his battle with cirrhosis as well as an image in tribute his struggle with PTSD & the aftermath of Agent Orange.

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FAMILY PHOTOS

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Click to learn more about the Do I Know You? series by Xerographist RLGibson!…and
FAMILY
HISTORY

I have spent the last few weeks gathering family photos to get a little planning done for DIKY –since most of the hand-drawn patterns are completed.  And as I sit and look into the collective face of my family, I find an almost overwhelming responsibility to get it right…

For me.  For them. 

 

For the ones I never knew.  For the ones that will never know.  The key is to not get so  bogged down in the responsibility that my ability to work creatively is paralyzed.

But, the faces… I cannot escape the faces.

Do I Know You? by Xerographist, R.L. Gibson

Mini Me AVAILABLE NOW!

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The work of Artist R.L. Gibson in now avilable via The Haggus Society FB store!PRINTS
of a sort

I get a surprising number of requests for prints even each of my pieces is a monoprint.  I understand that not everyone has several feet of wall space for surrealist, pop-art portrait with a less than subtle political message.  So, for my next show (Do I Know You? opening in July of 2014), I intend to sell a handful of paper prints for a charitable cause.

In the meantime, you might not realize it, but a small number of 4″ x 4″ prints on gallery-wrapped canvas DO exist of the Psychomachia Show.  You can own one today by going to the the Facebook store of The Haggus Society.

Take a look…

Check out the FB store of The Haggus Society to see work by Artist R.L. Gibson!

INKED

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Sakura Pigma Micron PenThe
black
Thin Line…

I am not one to be drawn to traditional art supplies.  I don’t tend to go gaga over watercolor papers or a specific brand of oil pastels.  I usually just love the bizarre, non-traditional objects that I believe are destined to end up as art–like abandoned lunch trays, old silkscreen frames and Cracker Jack boxes.

My primary focus has been Xerography, and I’ve had little use for pens and pencils over the years. However, as I begin exploring new techniques for an upcoming series, I have to admit that I have fallen in love with the Sakura Pigma Micron pens.

They are a fairly inexpensive alternative to the technical pen.  I am particularly in love with the Micron 05.  You have to use a very light touch, which isn’t really my norm, but the delicate results are just unbelievable.  They are pigment based, don’t bleed or feather, and they are archival.

I’m inspired…