The Spool is Unwinding

"The law can be stood on its head. When your ten years are up they can say, 'Here's another ten for you.' Or exile you.Yet there were times when you thought about it and you almost choked with excitement. Yes, your term really is coming to an end; the spool is unwinding..."-from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksander Sozlhenitsyn.


The Spool is Unwinding is ink, acrylic, and newspaper on wood panel. 24" x 36"

Masters of this House

" I wish you welcome, comrades peasants! You come here not as guests, but as masters of this house, which holds the heart of the Russian Revolution. The will of millions of workers is now concentrated in this hall... There is now only one master of the Russian land: the union of the workers, soldiers and peasants..."
-Leon Trotsky. 1917. As quoted from John Reed's 10 Days that Shook the World

Peasants protesting the Tsarist regime and the bourgeois power over them.
The banner in the painting reads: Death to Freedom.

Masters of this House is ink and newspaper on wood panel. 72" x 36"

By Hundreds and Thousands

"The solemn proletariat revolutionaries with rifles half smile at the viewer as the series of seven post-card-sized drawings of a murder of crows exhibited above the painting look as if they're flying over the revolutionary's heads, lending exhilaration and movement to the freedom the men are fighting for." -from Dave Barton's review You Say You Want a Revolution?, OC Weekly 9.2.2011

I thought that was an interesting way of putting it. The only thing I want to add is that the crows lend an ominous for boding of a dark future that, at the moment seems so bright and free during their victorious revolution.

By Hundreds and Thousands is ink, acrylic, book pages on wood panel. 42.5" x 28"
Each crow above is ink and newspaper on wood panel. 4.5" x 6.5".

read more of that article here.

A Quarter and Five on the Horns

A quarter and five on the horns means twenty five years and five additional years of deprivation of civil rights. In keeping track of the time until one got out of the labor camps, a simple mark scrawled on the wall meant one day closer to freedom. This installation piece shows almost one year of that time.

A Quarter and Five on the Horns is roughly 1.5" x 2" each. Acrylic on stained wood.

...To the Last Clang of the Rail

"A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day.
There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch.
From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail."
-One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

...To the Last Clang of the Rail is ink and newspaper on wood panel. 48" x 48"

Below is a video of the final step in the process of making these pieces. I already penciled in the outlines and just needed to ink everything in. Thanks Zachs for the extra help with the video, it wouldn't have been possible without both of you.

No. Fifty Eight

A flower for all those condemned under Article Fifty Eight during Stalin's reign.

No. Fifty Eight is ink, oil, and newspaper on wood panel. 15.5" x 18.25". Framed

Prisoners

Prisoner no. 281



Prisoner no. 282



Prisoner no. 283

Prisoner no. 281, Prisoner no. 282, Prisoner no. 283 are ink and newspaper on wood panel. 16" x 23" each. Framed.

A Day Without a Dark Cloud

 "A Day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day."
-One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

A Day Without a Dark Cloud is ink, acrylic, and newspaper on wood panel.
Part of the current show "By Hundreds and Thousands" at Rothick Art Haus.

From the Show