This piece started from the outside in. The actual concept of this piece is not the anaglyph skull center piece, but rather the painted frame edges. The idea was to pay homage to the red-tufted Naugahyde booths that sit against the wall in the legendary Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip.

You would be hard-pressed to find any place in the world that has sat more rock royalty than these five booths along the back wall of rock's most prestigious venue.

Although almost an addendum, the anaglyph skull is a continuation of my skull series that scratches the itch for a higher-end appearance that lends itself to different display areas.

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I'm sure most bands' opinions of soundchecks would differ, but I have always liked the vibe and looseness of a soundcheck. That’s where this piece started, the initial intention was a nod to the soundcheck.

Almost as soon as the soundcheck idea came to mind, I knew I had to reference the most rock 'n’ roll soundcheck experience and one of my all-time favorite rock stories from the mid-90s.

I was lucky enough to be in attendance for one of my favorite bands of all time at a music festival in Penticton B.C. The start of the session wasn’t too different from all the others, except that their charismatic lead man hadn’t yet arrived. The band lost the member the night before in Kelowna and had no idea where he was (this was before cell phones were an everyday item). He eventually showed in classic rock star fashion—in a limo with a few female fans in tow. As he took the stage, I noticed he only had on one boot and was mumbling and 'humming' (see what I did there) somewhat incoherently to get the mic sounds required.

Rest assured, a few hours later he came out and put on the most blistering performance I’ve ever witnessed. That’s as rock star as it gets.

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It's not often a commission request feels like the collector reached into my head and grabbed an idea, but that is exactly what happened with this piece. After a short conversation, a collector asked if I would consider doing a whiskey glass piece that incorporated Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon". My response? Say less.

The concept fell into place in record time as I poured a glass of Bullet Bourbon, dimmed the lights, lit one up, and spun Dark Side.

My taste in music is simple—if it's loud, it's cool. For some reason, I never outgrew my love for loud decibel levels that disturb neighbors. One song that stands out from the rest when it comes to loud music is ACDC’s “Shoot to Thrill.” It has been my go-to song for testing a new audio system for as long as I can remember.

That’s where this one was born—I approached this piece by trying to paint loud (if that makes any sense). It was serendipitous that the song I find synonymous with loud volumes also comes from a band that regularly used cannons in their live shows and visuals of cannons throughout their illustrious career. Once again, all the pieces fit like a puzzle.

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After consecutive weekends seeing amazing rock and roll club shows in L.A. and Austin, I was feeling that vibe of the classic no-hold-barred club shows that I loved as a youth. That’s where the inspiration for this piece came. After just finishing my soundcheck piece titled “The Monkey Man” I decided a sister painting to that piece would fit perfectly.

The concept isn’t too complicated, I just wanted to give that throwback feeling, and a cigarette in a guitar neck seemed to fit the vibe I was chasing perfectly.

The title reference is a song from one of my favorite rock bands, Buckcherry, which fell into my lap like a Tetris piece and perfectly closed the circle on the piece.

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I'm no prophet, but I can state with a good degree of certainty that you were dressed in black the last time you attended a rock concert. That’s the thing about rock 'n' roll, we feel a part of it, part of its history, attitude, and aesthetic. We feel more than just attendees of a rock show - we are part of the act. No matter how colorful our daily attire may be, without any prior official notification, thousands of fans will adhere to the unwritten rule and wear the same uniform. It’s the only color acceptable when rebellion and attitude is the backdrop for the show.

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When Mireille (Ray) and I met, our first common bond was our love for music. Very early on in our relationship (she hadn’t even told anyone I existed yet), we decided to throw caution to the wind and book a trip to the BottleRock music festival in Napa. It was a sink-or-swim moment for us. It was at this festival that we both felt like there was something special between us.

Fast forward eight and half years, I was searching for a way to conceptualize the special feeling of a day at a music festival. When the weather is perfect, and the lineup is amazing, there is no place on earth I would rather be. The energy and atmosphere are almost impossible to describe let alone try to paint.

That’s when I remembered this photo in my phone from that festival - it perfectly encapsulated the feeling I wanted to convey. Although a blurry old selfie photo can never do her justice, it’s the feeling of that summer festival that I wanted to try and capture.

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Unbeknownst to me, when I embarked on this piece there are many songs called "Sparkle and Shine" – most are bright and upbeat. You should know me better than that. This piece was inspired by the music and message of Canadian band Econoline Crush, and its subject matter is quite a bit heavier.

It touches on the pressures one puts on themselves when their art becomes a source of income for them and those surrounding them. When these pressures to provide content intersect with mental health or substance abuse, the artist often forgoes the self-care they need to keep the machine going. Sometimes these pressures come from within, and in some cases, they come from the management arm. The chorus of the song sums it up better than I ever could – “Killed by ambition, sacrificed for fame, one more time, sparkle and shine”.

I’ve taken to discussing mental health when I get up in front of an audience at events. It's something I'm affected by and my piece "Welcome To My Breakdown" was created solely to start the conversations that helped me through some of my darkest days.

One thing that's came from this discussion is the number of veterans who approached me after to talk about the effects of PTSD on themselves or their loved ones. I've been asked many times if I would consider doing a piece for those struggling veterans. After a conversation where I learned that an individual had attempted to end their life twice, how could I say no?

For the concept, I took a Banksy strategy. His approach of adding some levity to a serious issue through whismy or straight up sarcasm is something I admire. While listening to a song called “ Devil in My Ear” by the Red Clay Strays the idea of my childhood little green plastic army men in a solemn pose jumped into my mind.

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Sometimes after the initial concept seed is planted, the final pieces take months or even years to fall into place. This is not one of those. This piece was conceptualized almost instantly. I am astutely aware that my collection, like rock 'n' roll itself, is under-representing female artists. For this reason, I'm always on high alert for content that helps change that.

This piece is simply an image that jumped into my head while listening to Pat Benetar's rock classic "Hit Me with Your Best Shot". Something about the line – “put another notch in my lipstick case” jumped out as not only a great lyric, but a bad ass comment from a badass entertainer. From this seed, the rest of the concept fell into my lap when the chorus concludes with "Fire Away". Initially, a bullet entered my mind, but I knew that concept had been done numerous times before and it just didn’t have the mass destruction element I wanted for this piece – a missile or rocket was the clear choice.

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For the record, I don’t think disco sucks. On the contrary, I believe it significantly contributed to the wildest era and location for music in history—New York City in the 70s. The juxtaposition of Bianca Jagger on a white horse inside disco mecca Studio 54 while three miles south the filth and the fury of punk rock was seeping out of the walls of CBGB perfectly portrays the creative explosion and chaos of this magical time.

Although I was quite young, I distinctly remember the “Disco Sucks” movement. Even in my small corner of Edmonton, Alberta, it started appearing on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and of course, graffiti. The movement grew to a breaking point on July 12, 1979. Disco Demolition Night was a Chicago White Sox promotion at Comiskey Park that ended in a riot. At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the two-night doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers. Many had come to see the explosion rather than the games and rushed onto the field after the detonation. The playing field was so damaged by the explosion and by the rioters that the White Sox were required to forfeit the second game to the Tigers.

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The mighty Kieth Richards once stated in an interview that the rowdiest entertainers he ever came across on the road were the old, gritty outlaw country musicians, like Haggard, Jennings, Cash, etc. Lore has their antics surpassing those of the Stones, Zeppelin and other bands that were touring in the late 60s through the 70s.

As the son of a cattle man, these are the guys that I remember most growing up. The authentic sounding songs about booze, women and sorrow streaming from our obscenely large cabinet style record player.

Admittedly, country music lost me for many years as the genre seemed to trade in tattered hats and grizzled beards for backwards baseball hats and tank tops, and the music seemed more pop than country, in my opinion. In the last few years however, I’ve had the privilege of spending some time in Nashville and I’ve been pleased to see a real resurgence in traditional sounding country—artists like Sturgill Simpson, Luke Combs, Red Clay Strays, Chris Stapleton and even a few outlaws such as Tim Montana and Kid Rock (yes, Kid Rock) have re-invigorated my love for an authentic heartstring-pulling country tune.

This is the third minimalist skull in a sub series of pieces that are fast becoming some of my favorite to paint. There is something about the negative space, the simplicity of the overall concept juxtaposed by the complexity of the detail that really gives it a stylized feel that I dig. This piece is a product of a rainy day and going down a Joy Division rabbit hole.

I hadn’t planned on revisiting this series so soon but once Ian Curtis’ haunting voice on Dead Souls filled the air of my studio, I was compelled to entertain the idea. Three songs later as "Glass" was now clapping off the walls, this concept was born.

I’m positive this sub series will continue to live on – they definitely “Keep Calling Me”.

Lately, everything seems to be coming up Nashville. I’m no exception – I've been to the music city multiple times this year. Whenever I get to spend some time in a city with strong musical roots, the inspiration is sure to follow. With the combination of a new rock 'n' roll influence and a resurgence in traditional sounding country, Nashville is quickly starting to feel like home for me.

Being a place with so many historic venues, honky tonks and recording studios, I decided to return to a small sub series of pieces where I depict a famous music venue. I contemplated the historic Ryman Auditorium or the Grand Ole Opry, but I’ve always been more of a dive bar honky-tonk type of guy – the iconic Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge fit the bill perfectly.

I could probably write a novel on the significance of this purple oasis across the alley from the Ryman – and I’m sure many have. In the simplest of explanations, it is country music’s answer to Los Angeles’ Whiskeya Go-Go or New York’s CBGB. The talent that has appeared beneath the light of Tootsie’s “Neon Moon” is unrivaled.

In 2017, I was fortunate enough to visit the Louvre. It was there that I was inspired to embark on my Rock Gods sub series. One statue that stuck out was the Venus Di Milo. From the second I saw it, I knew I had to paint it when the right concept presented itself. Seven years later, it did.

I have become very aware of the lack of female presence in my collection (which is probably proportional to the actual rock music genre). This realization was an opportunity to circle back to the Venus Di Milo sculpture and merge the classic Aphrodite with some of the most prominent female rock musicians in history. This concept allowed me to pay homage to Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner, Debbie Harry (Blondie) and to add some contemporary artists who have shown some real rock 'n' roll chops of late – Miley Cyrus and Halsey.

After reading the new biography of one of my favorite musicians, I noticed something was missing from this one that was very present in all the other biographies I’ve read. There was no chaos or discord. For me, part of the romance of rock 'n' roll is the juxtaposition of beauty with chaos. This led me down the rabbit hole of the origin of these traits. Knowing that almost everything comes from ancient mythology, I assumed there was an origin story of the emergence of mayhem. I wasn’t disappointed.

After being snubbed from attending the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, the goddess, Eris, crashed the wedding and tossed a golden apple with an inscription that read “kallisti” or “the fairest” among the guests. The chaos that ensued as the women fought for the apple is known as the origin of discord.

This piece also gave me a chance to give a Stickman style wink to the tradition of still life fruit paintings, as well as MC Escher’s famous reflecting sphere.

Over the years, the clenched fist has adopted many meanings – from strength to defiance to solidarity. It is easy to see why some of the social commentary style musicians have often used the image – most notably Rage Against the Machine and my personal favorite, Rise Against. Although I can’t say I always align with the position or the use of the symbol, I do love how artists can use their craft to express their views. I’ve been a fan of this genre of music since Woody Guthrie declared his guitar a machine for killing fascists.

This piece started as a nod to the above but a secondary meaning uncovered itself when I drove past a mural and saw some graffiti that said “protect your heart” – my mind went directly to "protect your art" and I decided to add an autobiographical element to the piece as well as message to all artists entering the business side of the art game. Far too many artists can tell a story of bad business decisions at the start of their journey where they lost money or rights to their works. I am certainly one.

For a long time, I wanted to find a way to honor the tradition of destroying instruments at the end of a set without simply painting the act itself. It is rumored that Pete Townsend was the originator – but for me, Paul Stanley made the introduction in the late 70’s. Since then, the torch seems to have been passed on to generation after generation. To steal a comment from Nirvana, there are no encores when there are no instruments.

The concept revealed itself to me while researching a different painting. As I was searching for inspiration and images for that other piece, I stumbled across a photo of Bernini’s statue of David. I immediately made the connection of the statue’s position to the art of smashing a guitar.

After doing my preliminary studies for the piece, a second meaning also revealed itself to me. The statue’s original concept is using a sling to slay a giant. I couldn’t help but make a connection to one of my favorite artists - a drummer who used guitar to slay the giant expectations of his career success in Nirvana…of course both the statue and the musician share the name David.

If laughter is the best medicine, then music is a very close second. I’m sure I’m not alone, whether mad, glad or sad, we reach out to find a soundtrack that either supports our state of mind or pulls us out of it. Anecdotally, music has helped me through the most difficult challenges in my life - both physically and mentally.

The x-ray concept is not new to me - this is the third piece in this sub series. This series allows me to pay homage to some periphery rock imagery while giving it that edgier vibe that I always strive for.

As for the unique background on this piece, the colored skulls are there to give a Stickman version nod to famed contemporary artist Damien Hirst’s polka dot series. I added them to this concept simply because the image jumped into my head at 3am on a sleepless night.

I’ve been conceptualizing this piece for over 10 years – it has made it to the easel twice, only to be discarded. There is something about this lyrical play on words that really resonates with me and the visual makes a perfect pop art piece with some social commentary attached to it.

The best part of music or art is when the viewer or listener can find a piece of themselves in the work – that’s what the Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” does for me. The song expresses the futility of anger within a large and powerful system – which is something we are seeing today in the current political arena. A bullet traveling with butterfly wings becomes harmless despite its intentions or potential.

I’m sure I speak for most when I say we all go through short periods of obsessing over a genre of music. I’ll routinely hear friends and family claim they are currently on a country kick, or a hip kick, etc. I found myself on one of these kicks a few months back where I was searching for very beautiful, albeit dark or morose, feeling of music. I was spinning Carina Round, Depeche Mode’s “Memento Mori”, some low tempo NIN, and probably surprising to a lot of you – Halsey’s “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power”, produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (which explains why the album was such a departure from her earlier pop offerings).

For the concept, I challenged myself to create the visual equivalent of some of these very dark and beautiful songs. As I laid on my studio couch with my weed and wine, Halsey’s voice hauntingly kept repeating “all of this is temporary” as I stared at a lighted skull candle in front of me. The piece was literally staring me in the face. From there I needed to add some accompanying visuals that would also have to be temporary – the flowers filled that bill, not only for their life span, but to bring beauty to the dark.

The first reference I saw that correlated the Greek god Dionysus to the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle was from Jim Morrison in the late 1960’s. With Dionysus being the god of wine, pleasure, festivity, madness, frenzy, and chaos, it’s easy to see why Jim often compared himself to the deity. It’s not a stretch to think that if rock ‘n’ roll and the decadence that comes along with it was around in the ancient times it would surely be included.

When tasked to do a signature piece for one of my favorite and most inspirational locations – the Sunset Strip in L.A., my imagination immediately jumped to using Dionysus as a focal point. In my mind, if the god walked the earth in the 20th century, he would have undoubtedly felt most at home wandering the strip in West Hollywood.

From there, I wanted to tie in a symbol that would represent the chaos and decadence of our time on the Sunset Strip. Using Slash’s iconic top hat fit perfectly - anyone who knows his story or has read his biography could tell you that, in addition to being the living embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll, he also fits the frenzy and madness descriptors of Dionysus himself.

Doing another Alice Cooper tribute is a no-brainer – I believe he’s one of the few entertainers keeping the great rock spectacle alive, and doing so with vaudeville itself. One only needs to read the inspiration behind my first Alice Cooper piece titled, “In My Eyes, Blood Drops looks like Roses”, to know how big a fan I truly am.

This piece, however, came from a different inspiration. It has literally been staring at me for the last 10 months, as this bust sits in my office.

Years ago, I walked into the John Varvatos store in New York at 315 Bowery, the former location of the famous CBGB’s. In the store stood a five-foot-tall Statue of Liberty with its eyes painted black like Alice Cooper and I immediately fell in love with the décor idea (I even tried to buy it then and there but was denied). Last year, when I came across a ceramic Greek bust, I immediately knew I had to do something similar for my own home.

The first layer of this piece is a commentary on the evolution of popular musicians. A 'where we were versus where we are' mash up of two true geniuses.

It takes a lot for a hip hop or pop star to grab my attention, but something about Post Malone caught me right from the first time I heard “White Iverson”. This cat just hit different for me. Since then, I’ve seen him transform himself into the most diverse artists on the scene. In doing so, he started to gravitate to some of my favorite rock icons. From duets with Ozzy, covering Sabbath, and teaming up with Travis Barker for an epic lockdown basement concert, he showed not only his rock and roll chops but also a guitar ability that had even YouTube virtuosos commending his skills. In today’s music industry he is as close to a renaissance man as there is.

When I embarked on possible concepts to honor Posty, I stumbled across a post that stated, “Post Malone looks like Beethoven on crack”. This concept was instantly born. With the recent statue concepts I’ve been playing with, this mashup of Beethoven with Posty’s face tattoos fit like a Tetris piece.

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The precursor to the famous devil horn hand gesture seen at rock concerts today was undoubtedly the peace sign gesture. Before the hard rock influence in the early 70s, in the late sixties rock scene, these gestures were synonymous with each other. Although it has taken a back seat for many years, it’s still widely used by musicians. It’s even been adopted by rock fashion icon, John Varvatos, as an official symbol of the brand – however, no one in rock is more associated with the symbol than possibly the most iconic drummer of all time, Ringo Starr of The Beatles. Ringo has made this gesture his own personal calling card and has even taken to sculpting a collection of his hand making the gesture, auctioning it off for charity.

After my “Ballerina, You Must Have Seen Her” piece, I was itching to re-visit the x-ray concept and this fit like a glove (pun intended). Like its predecessor, the x-ray image gives the gesture an edgier and more Stickman feel than just a painting of a hand.

The broken finger in this piece does have a social commentary wink – however, this is one of those cases where I prefer the viewer creates their own narrative.

“Like a slug from a forty-five
True death, 400 horsepower
Of maximum performance
Piercing the night
This is black sunshine.”

Damn, that’s cool. I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate my favorite White Zombie song “Black Sunshine” with this epic intro by Iggy Pop into a piece for a long time (it also happens to be the fitting nickname I gave my black convertible).

The actual seed for this concept came from a few different places. The first was Ray’s realization that the blue reflection in another piece of mine, titled Silver Machine, was the sun shining through our backyard window onto the skull. I leaned on that as a starting point. The second piece of inspiration came from the Basquiat print titled Black Skull I have hanging in my dining room. When I realized this was a fitting concept for my long-awaited White Zombie nod, it all came together. This piece is another shining example (pardon the pun) of numerous ideas and inspirations all converging into a singular image, and hopefully, vibe.

Since I started with Iggy’s epic intro, I might as well leave you with his equally epic outro:

“Finally, nothing moves high noon
Black top rolling below the asphalt drive
A concrete fascination scraping the edge of nothing
This is black sunshine.”

Being born on Dec. 24 and passing on Dec.28, it’s easy to see why I get a little nostalgic and reflective about Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister around Christmas. This year was no different, with the exception that I started spinning some pre-Motorhead Lem in the studio by one of his early bands – the bad ass futuristic Hawkwind. While listening to “Silver Machine” at an ear splitting level, I reached for a bottle of wine from the bar and a silver skull decoration we’ve had for years was staring me in the face.

Sometimes the inspiration comes as easy as that. Although I was stoked to paint the silver skull, I was equally stoked to be one of the few rock and roll artists who can say they have a piece inspired by freaking Hawkwind.

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Too gritty, too edgy, too dark, too rock and roll…these are all things I’ve heard from people inside the art industry over the years. During my conversations with publishers and gallery owners over the years, it was a frequent occurrence to hear that they loved my talent level but wanted me to pursue a different vibe and subject matter to suit their clientele. I even had one publisher try to convince me that the path to expanding my footprint was to do golf themed art (I couldn’t imagine a worse hell). Now, I don’t begrudge artists that tailor their art to the geographic location of the gallery (making money in this business is tough), but to me, that always felt like doing gift shop/souvenir art. There is no way that painting Flamingos for a Florida gallery could ever come from my heart. I’ll always believe art from your heart and soul hits differently.

That being said, I am human and very ambitious, so the temptation to appease some high-volume galleries does creep in from time to time. When those thoughts cross my mind, I usually turn to my man Jack White, and more specifically, his song “The White Raven”. Although he is very successful, I feel that Jack has always put his art before commerce and mega stardom. I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but this song is where I turn to remind myself that if you take care of the art, it will take care of you.

Thankfully, there are still many in the industry that subscribe to a different thought process and share the mindset of selling the artist and the ideas, not souvenirs. Not too long ago I had the privilege of spending an afternoon in L.A. tossing back drinks with a titan of the art industry and who has worked with some of the biggest music stars in the world, someone who I hold in high regard and whose opinion I take to heart. When he asked me why I was striving for galleries and events that wanted me to change my vibe, he profoundly stated…you don’t have the wrong art, you have the wrong dream.

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This piece, like most, came from a convergence of a few different things. First and foremost, I wanted to do another Elton inspired piece to mark the occasion of his farewell tour. I was initially torn between "Tiny Dancer" and "Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting". However, the scales tipped towards "Tiny Dancer" due to that epic scene in "Almost Famous" (also, coincidently, Elton and Britney Spears re-imagined this song while I was conceptualizing the piece).

The second piece of inspiration came from Ray and the Alberta Ballet. Generally a ballet would not be my preferred choice for an evening out, however, she convinced me to give it a try when they produced a series of performances set to famous rock musicians/bands. Featuring the music of bands such as The Hip, Bowie, and Elton, it was an easy sell to try this new way of enjoying my favorite music.

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit some of the most amazing art galleries in the world, including the Vatican and the Louvre. It’s no surprise how much I’ve enjoyed seeing some of the most iconic paintings in the world, but what caught me off guard was how much I was drawn to the statues. Almost immediately, ideas started bouncing around in my head about who would be the modern-day philosophers and poets that people hundreds of years from now would look upon. Naturally that path headed towards the musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. I started to conceptualize a few different ways to portray this idea, and am looking forward to sharing some of these concepts very soon.

This piece was the first to be actualized. I figured arguably the most recognizable statue in the world would be a good jumping off point and with its title simply being DAVID - it was almost taunting me to paint it as a defaced statue with the most prominent David in rock and roll history. The concept of incorporating the Bowie lightning bolt to the face is a collision of Michelangelo’s world/art with my own.

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I’ve often felt that to truly understand me and my art, one would have to experience The Rolling Stones live. For this reason, I was incredibly excited to get tickets for Ray to see her first Stones show in April of 2020. We all know that never happened. While we all hunkered down and waited for the world to return to normal, the Stones lost legendary drummer Charlie Watts. This instilled an extra sense of urgency to make sure I could see them one more time and that Ray could experience first hand the band that has shaped so much of my life. In 2022, when they announced the 50th anniversary show at historic Hyde Park, we jumped at the chance.

Upon returning from London, I knew I wanted to capture the monumental journey in a new piece. During the weekend trip we visited their flagship store at No.9 Carnaby Street a few times. It was at this flagship store that I conceptualized this piece. As coincidences often seem to do with my art, I had previously done eight paintings that we’re inspired by the Stones…this was No.9.

Every once in a while, I enjoy taking a popular style of art and trying to emulate it with a Stickman twist. This allows me the freedom to explore different concepts and techniques while remaining true to my overall vision and brand. This piece certainly falls into that category, as wine and cocktail paintings are quite mainstream these days – the skull and voodoo imagery push it towards a slightly edgier and rock ‘n’ roll version of the genre.

As for the actual imagery of this piece, a Stones reference should be no surprise to anyone at this point. Although it had nowhere near the reverence of some of the band’s classic albums, 1994’s “Voodoo Lounge” is a very personal album for me – not only was it my first CD ever (I was late to the CD game), but it was the album that led me to super fandom. Of course, I had heard the classic songs, but it was “Voodoo Lounge” that drove me to the deep cuts, documentaries, biographies, live shows and of course, a dog named Jagger.¬

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At first glance, this piece does not look like it belongs in my catalog – floral pieces don’t usually scream rock and rebellion. It’s in the inspiration that this offering starts to make sense on why it could be a corner stone painting of a rock artist.

It started as I was lying in the operating room for a recent surgery. My medical team was asking me about my tattoos and the conversation quickly turned to music. This ultimately led to them letting me pick a song to listen to as they did their final prep work and sent me off to sleep. I asked them to play one of my two favorite songs, “Black” by Pearl Jam or “Paint it Black” by the Stones. The last words I heard as I faded out were – “I guess we don’t need to ask your favorite colour”. The seed was planted with that statement.

While in recovery, I started thinking more about the exchange and about all the bands, albums and songs in rock music that referenced the colour black. I wanted to pay tribute to the colour and its prevalence in the rock genre – but it was extremely tough to conceptualize how to pay tribute to black.

In yet another happy accident, I was simultaneously also trying to conceptualize a completely different piece based on starting new, or a rebirth, due to finally coming out of a very long health battle. I turned to Google to research images and ideas that may symbolize a rebirth, and to my pleasant surprise, the first page filled up with references to black roses as this symbol. It was perfect, I was able to combine a double meaning into a single work – and for the next month this piece “turned my world to black”.