Though my dad majored in psychology, he loved art, literature, poetry, and mythology. He taught Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain for a time, but generally art was an avocation. He drew and painted on and off throughout his life. For a couple of years, he created detailed drawings that he gave me every other week when we would meet for breakfast. These colored pencil drawings are ripe with mythological and mystical symbolism.
They are bright with saturated color. Sometimes he would describe the meaning behind the symbols, animals, people, and colors in his art. Rarely did he write it down though.
It is clear that I am often a subject in his art. Often there are other human figures. Some seem to look like him, but others are faceless or too abstract to seem representative of any particular person. Many include animals such as owls, lions, and wolves. Certain symbols make frequent appearances. The infinity symbol, the five-pointed star, and the ankh show up often. Many of the people have crazy hair colors. Green hair seemed to be a favorite. Though I may not remember or understand what he was communicating in his art, they clearly convey an emotional subtext.
The Katy Geissert Civic Center Library in Torrance was his studio. He spent hours there and I can only wonder what the librarians and patrons thought at the time. I assume they recognized him. I assume he worked at the same table or cubicle each day. But, I don’t really know about that either. Every once in awhile he would relay comments strangers would make when walking by as he worked. He was disciplined and focused on his art during this time. I could count on receiving a drawing every time we had breakfast.
I was an 18- 19-year-old college student at the time driving for Long Beach to Torrance just to visit him, so my memory of the narratives represented in the drawings is spotty. As I catalog these surreal drawings and the letters written around the same time I am left to interpret them on my own . . . decades later. This art that was only meant for his eyes and mine.
Take Lots of Pictures 