Art of the Macabre

My fascination with the mystic of death, grave yards and headstones goes way back. I started making “rubbing” of headstones after a friend told me of his collection. The beauty of charcoal or graphite pencil on sketch paper takes on a life of its own. The rubbing shown here is from the Randy Rhodes Mausoleum in San Bernardino, Ca. Randy [1956 -1982] was the guitarist for Ozzy Osborne. The pencil lines in the rubbing are in stark contrast to John Tenniel illustrations, and that’s O.K. There is a time and place for both. The “Blue Angel” is a watercolor, pen & ink of a headstone in Rome. I did this around 2007. I like the freedom watercolor and ink gives me. I kind of like to work fast, and take the first thing that comes out of my head. I don’t know why I do that, short attention span maybe? Don’t they make medication for that?

[thanks to Randy and Gab for their help]