John's Art Work

"SELF PORTRAIT"

This was probably not the first drawing I ever did, but it is the oldest one I could find. I am assuming it is a drawing of me, or it could be one of my family members. For the most part I was a pretty easy-going little guy back then. I still like to make happy suns in my art work.

"MY DAD"

This is a pencil drawing I did of my dad when I was in elementary. My dad was an auto-body man and spent a lot of time working under cars. For a bigger guy I was amazed how nimble he could slide under a car. Once he got under a car he would always yell, “Johnny, get me a 3/16 wrench!” and I would inevitability come back with the wrong sized wrench. My dad had a lot of patience.

"GRANDPA RAY"

This is a pencil drawing I did of my Grandpa Ray. I needed my subject to remain still. So, I waited for my grandpa to fall asleep on the couch and then I proceeded to draw him. I was in elementary (probably sixth grade) when I drew this picture.

"YAMAHA PHAZER"

When the Phazer first came out it looked so cool, like something from the future. This was my dream snowmobile. We never got this snowmobile, instead, my dad bought a John Deere snowmobile (340cc) whose top speed maybe reached 50 mph downhill with the wind on my back. I drew the Phazer on notebook paper, probably because I wanted to stare at it secretly in class at school. This was probably one of my first technical drawings.

"HE MAN CHARACTER"

For a brief period I was really into He-Man. This is my pencil drawing on green typing paper of one of the characters from the He-Man series. Based on my signature at the bottom I probably drew this in fifth or sixth grade.

"ROSES"

My art teacher, Dave Guenther, introduced me to pen and ink drawing. In the beginning I used a fountain pen. Each pen had interchangeable tips and each tip had a tiny ink reservoir. I would dip my pen into a glass ink bottle then draw with it for about one minute then dip it back in the ink. Fountain pens were famous for being ultra-messy and ink would often drip off the end of my pen without warning. The black dots on this picture are from those drops of ink. This is one of my very first pen and ink drawings. My technique was very planned and deliberate. The idea is to create textures and shadows by layering multiply lines in a variety of directions. I have retired all my fountain pens and now I use technical drawing pens.

"MONA LISA"

I did this pen and ink drawing of the Mona Lisa over thirty-two years ago. This was part of my early stages of pen and ink drawing. All the lines in this picture are the same direction (vertical), which was very challenging for me.

"SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION"

Here is another one of my pen and ink drawings from 1988. I was still in the early stages of learning and developing my technique. The lines in this drawing were so crazy straight, I think I may have used a ruler. The idea for this drawing came from a band called Undercover and in one of their songs there is a line, “through the hands on the cross, out of the grave, and into my heart.” This was my first-time drawing something spiritual and dear to my heart.

"FRONT PORCH FAILURE"

When I was sixteen, I went through a brief phase as an artist and struggled to finish my pieces. I am sure this frustrated my art teacher. This struggle birthed my early dabbling into abstract concepts and opened new avenues for my drawing. I started this porch drawing and after about five days into it I decided to go a different direction. Even though I failed at drawing this front porch, I succeeded in drawing my first abstract picture.

"STEAM TRAIN FAIL"

I started this steam train drawing with the hopes of finishing it and getting myself out of my artistic funk. I committed myself for over a month working on the train details and dark shadows. However, after a month a grabbed a pair of scissors and some magic markers and gave it a psychedelic look. I have always regretted my decision to not finish my train drawing. I proved to myself I could draw something ultra-technical, and then I stopped. Twenty-five years later I went back and drew another steam train and finished it (future steam train post coming).

"WHITE ON BLACK"

I did this drawing in junior high. It is the first and only time I drew with white ink on black paper.

"PSYCHEDELIC PEACE HAND"

It took me about one month to paint this psychedelic peace hand. I hide the words “peace” and “love” in the painting. I painted this in 1989,

"TRIANGLES"

I painted these triangles in high school (1989).

"INNER-SELF PORTRAIT"

When I was a senior in high school my art teacher let me create my own art class called Independent Art Study. For one of my assignments I wanted to draw my self-portrait. I did not want to draw my physical portrait (too easy), instead, I wanted to draw my insides, my internal self-portrait. I had a 3' x 6' sheet of paper and every night I drew a little bit of myself. This project took me all winter. When I took a picture of this drawing, I couldn't even fit all of it in the photo.

"I AM"

This is a finger painting I did in high school. The "I AM" is the Name God gave Himself when He spoke to Moses. I AM encompasses all eternity.

"NAMES OF GOD"

This is a black and white marker drawing of some of the different Names of God in the Bible. I drew this in high school (1989).

"BLACK & WHITE ABSTRACT"

This painting only took me about five minutes to complete (1989). It is still one of my favorite pieces.

"THE SON OF RIGHTEOUSNESS"

This is an airbrush I did of Yeshua (Jesus) back in 1989. I ended up painting this again on a 8' x 8' wall at our church. The inspiration for this piece comes Malachi, 4:2a, "But for you who revere my Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings..."

"NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE"

After high school I attended Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota (1990-1994). I drew this pointillism of one of the buildings on the campus.

"MOSH PIT & STAGE DIVE"

This is a friend of mine from college moshing and stage diving (1990). I drew it with a pen then colored it in with colored pencils.

"THE PRAYER CHAIN"

This is a painting I did in college of an album cover from a band called The Prayer Chain (1990). This was created by dabbing black ink with a sponge.

"FREAK & GEEK"

In college I started a cartoon series about my roommate (Geek) and myself (Freak). Scott played in a band and I skateboarded. We both worked in the college kitchen and was also the place where we got into the most trouble.

"JUST GOOSING AROUND"

Every fall hundreds of migrating geese would stop at the college. These geese were a huge nuisance. They were noisy and pooped everywhere. We tried to catch one, but it out smarted us.

Every day Scott and I would have to take out the garbage from the college kitchen where we worked. To make this mundane task for more fun we devised a game called garbage toss. The object was to see who could throw their garbage in the dumpster the furthest back. One day Scott was going for he record when his bag ripped open sending garbage everywhere.

“MUSCLE MEN?”

During my senior year at college I brought a weight bench into our dorm room. Scott and I would lift weights then go pose in the mirror. In our minds we thought we were professional body builders.

“GREETINGS TACO LOVERS”

When I was a kid my mom used to take me to Taco Bell for tacos. In college Scott and I lived at Taco Bell. We could get a lot of food with a little money. Taco Bell ran a promotion where if you ate twenty tacos you got a free hat and forty tacos earned you a free t-shirt. Scott ate his way to the free hat and I got the free t-shirt (which I still have today).

"BOX SLEDDING"

One day we received a shipment of new chairs for the college cafeteria. After Scott and I unboxed the chairs we had these huge empty boxes. My initial thought was to take one outside and go bobsledding down a hill (it was wintertime). So, I cut out a hole in the box for my head (I thought I should be able to see where I was going) and holes for my arms. The box was not big enough for two people, so I decided I would make the maiden voyage down the hill. I remember Scott giving me a little push and everything was going good until halfway down the hill when I realized I had no way of steering. Then the box went sideways, and I started to roll down the hill. Every time the box rolled, my head, which was still sticking out of the box, would take a beating. I think the box rolled at least six times. Both my glasses and stocking cap came off. I am sure Scott had a good laugh.

"BOLOGNA TOSS"

Another game we used to play in the college kitchen where we worked was Bologna Toss. The object was to stick a piece of bologna to the ceiling and see how long it could stay up there. Sometimes bologna would stay up there for days.

"CHEMICAL REACTIONS"

One day Scott and I had a difficult cleaning project in the college kitchen. We thought if we mixed all the chemicals we could create a super cleaning solution. What we created was a toxic cloud and had to evacuate the kitchen.

"DOMINOS DOTS"

Domino's Pizza had a promotion with our college. On every pizza box was a Domino's Dot and ten Dots earned one free pizza. Most of the freshman did not know about the "dots" promotion, so pizza boxes were discarded with the dots still on them. Scott and I would go dumpster diving looking for Domino's Dots. I don't think Scott and I paid for a pizza our junior year.

"PAIRS SKATE LUGE"

There was this really big hill at our college. One day I had the idea of both of us trying to go down the hill together. So we sat on our skateboards, facing each other, and locked our legs. Everything started out good, but something was slowly going terribly wrong. Scott had bigger skateboard wheels than me, so he was rolling faster, which made us pull to the right. At the bottom of the hill was a large roll-off dumpster. About ten feet before we were going hit he dumpster I decided to break away from Scott. I manage to avoid the dumpster, but Scott was not able to dodge it and hit it straight on. Scott told me everything "faded to black." I felt bad for Scott on this one.

"STUDY BREAK"

During my senior year at college we decided to build a skateboard ramp in our dorm room. We even had permission from our resident director. The skate ramp provided a great break from our rigorous studying.

“BALLISTIC BALL”

During final's week Scott and I invited a new game called Ballistic Ball. We would empty two cans of racquet balls on the floor and blast our boom box. The object was to see how many welts you could inflict on your opponent. You couldn't throw a racquet ball directly at your opponent, instead, you had to bounce it off a wall, the ceiling, or the floor. After about thirty minutes we would stop and count our welts. Whoever had the most welts was deemed the loser. This was probably the greatest game I have ever played.

"DUMBWAITER"

In the college kitchen where we worked there was an old dumbwaiter. Scott and I used to take turns riding in it. We put the "dumb" back in dumbwaiter.

"BEN & JERRYS"

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream had a promotion where if you ate ten pints of their ice cream they would give you a free Ben & Jerry's t-shirt. Scott and I wore our free t-shirts with pride.

"ICE BALLS"

In our college kitchen we had an ice machine. It made small cubed ice, which was perfect for making ice balls (an ice ball is like a snow ball just ten times harder). So Scott and I would make an army of ice balls and then declare war on each other.

"WHERE ARE THEY NOW?"

It has been a few years since our crazy college days. In college I remember each evening Scott would brush his hair 100 times because he said it stimulated his hair follicles and his hair would grow faster and longer. Today Scott shaves his head and his go-tee is two feet long. So it looks like Scott still brushes his hair nightly.

"WHERE ARE THEY NOW?"

In college I liked to wear loud bright clashing colors. I still have that flannel and I still have that goofy stocking cap. And those baggy green pants eventually got turned into a pair of shorts. And today I live vicariously through my magical yellow rubber duck.

TT39