"The Poet Grotesque"

                                                      "Otto"

                                                "Grotesques #43 & 44"

                                                     "The Artist As a Young Dog Grotesque"

                                                         "Soccer Mom"

"White Rasta"

These are a series of paintings/sketches part of series of "Grotesques." These are based on writings of Sherwood Anderson. Anderson is considered by many the "father" of 20th century American writing and was held in high regard by Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Faulkner. His book "Winesburg, Ohio" had a profound effect on me . There is a preface to the book entitled "The Book of Grotesque," and it's this quote that inspired the paintings above:

"

The old man had listed hundreds of the truths in his book. I will not try to tell you of all of them. There was the truth of virginity and the truth of passion, the truth of wealth and of poverty, of thrift and of profligacy, of carelessness and abandon. Hundreds and hundreds were the truths and they were all beautiful.	12
And then the people came along. Each as he appeared snatched up one of the truths and some who were quite strong snatched up a dozen of them.	13
It was the truths that made the people grotesques. The old man had quite an elaborate theory concerning the matter. It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood."