This document serves as accompaniment and commentary for the exhibition, “Food Pirates. Food, Technology, Pirates and the Future” which was shown March 29th through April 9th, 2017 at Design on Main in Ames, Iowa. The work comprised of the first issue of the comic book series, Food Pirates. This document serves as a supplement to the exhibit, examining background material used to build the world the comic is set in, current and historical practices in the comics industry, influences, and processes used to create the finished work.

This body of work is an exploration of what happens when I attempt to blend my need to build systems and organize chaos, with my love of technology, and the satisfaction I find in working with both words and images. It starts with a bunch of questions about food, the future, and pirates.

Growing up on a farm that has been in my family since 1849, I gained an admiration and reverence for the land that so many of my family members have worked. Like ghosts or spirits that walk the place, monument-like markers exist, signifying the actions and lives of those who came before me. A tractor may remain parked as it has been for years since the last time it was driven. A broken crock full of metal now slowly sinks into the earth under years of maple leaves fallen from the massive trees that my grandfather planted when he was six years old. A winter-killed field of grass frosted with a light snow cracks like eggshells under my chore boots. And a dead cow lies in a pasture to be consumed by scavengers of all species. I find stories on my family’s farm, and I record, document, and preserve them almost obsessively in my detailed graphite drawings and mixed-media acrylic paintings. My paintings begin with detailed underdrawings that often remain visible in the final painting. The underdrawings provide a visible structure or armature like bones on the body or the vaulting in a Gothic church. I create these mixed-media acrylic paintings using watered-down acrylic, acrylic ink, and handmade acrylic paints using natural pigments applied in multiple thin washes and using detailed, woven mark making. However, it is not so much the people or even the places as it is the opportunity within each painting or drawing to capture something timeless—something that would have been true yesterday or ten thousand years ago.

I consider my method of using underdrawings to have precedent in the techniques of Northern European artists from the 15th and early 16th century such as Robert Chaplin, Hans Memling, and Albrecht Dà ¼rer. Underdrawings are drawings done on panel, canvas, paper, or other substrate that assist in resolving compositional issues before the artist starts painting. Later painters took inspiration from these historical models in terms of both subject matter and working method and would apply concepts gleaned from these artists. One painter who did this Iowa native Grant Wood. The combination and juxtaposition of Regionalism, with its emphasis upon a particular rural venue, and the paradoxical mystery of Surrealism form the aesthetic precedent that is the basis of my artwork. I enjoy painting every blade of grass while allowing a disconcerting ambiguity to lurk below the surface to encourage viewers into a deeper dialogue with the paintings. I strive to find the sublime in the mundane that permeates each life to preserve and portray that for the future. An entire world is portrayed within the individual lines

A good story has the ability to transport the reader/listener/viewer to another

place. When done right, storytelling can be the greatest escape from the world. In this

thesis, I detail my journey from listener, to lover, to learner and creator of stories.

The primary story I follow is a piece I created entitled, Perception is Everything.

Inspired by the William Blake quote, “If the doors of perception were cleansed every

thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all

things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern,” this story is the fantastical trip of a man named

Gregory Jameson as he is jolted out of his mundane life and thrust into an unfamiliar

version of the world. Here, Greg is forced to trust in a strange being only he seems able to

see. This story embodies the fear and confusion inherent within every new endeavor in

life.

I also show the path I have followed to create the story and help myself learn to

become a better storyteller. One tool I use to achieve a better mastery of storytelling is a

system of analytic analysis. I adapted this system as a way to dissect both my work and

other works I admire in order to see what makes these stories tick.

The feeling of reading or creating a good story is one of my favorite feelings and

one which was instilled in me from a young age. My desire is to pass along that joy and

to inspire others to love and create good stories as well.