ETHER DREAM (2024) ballpoint pen
In this neon pink ballpoint pen drawing, obsessive crosshatching builds a body laid bare in complete surrender. Neon pink pulses with the heated flush of skin, the electric thrill of longing, and the raw intensity of love and lust. Through thousands of meticulous strokes, the figure becomes a quiet confession of obsession, femininity, and the consuming ache of wanting — desire quietly witnessing itself in the mirror of another painted nude.
My swollen, bulbous characters are exaggerated vessels of the human condition. They are grotesque yet tender, absurd yet deeply familiar.
Through them I explore inner chaos, vulnerability, desire, and the carnivalesque absurdity of simply being human.
A towering pile of bulbous, round-headed baby-like creatures are stacked precariously on a bright yellow background. The way they’re climbing, clinging, and overlapping is both playful and deeply unsettling; like a living tower of innocence mixed with grotesque absurdity. Some look sleepy or content, others wide-eyed or struggling, and the whole mass has this frantic, organic energy and a carnivalesque spirit.
The pyramid shape draws the eye upward, and the yellow background makes the graphite figures pop with dramatic contrast. The details like tiny hands, varied expressions, the way limbs intertwine show great control and an unhinged imagination.
This drawing depicts a human menagerie at its most chaotic and biological: birth, multiplicity, piling up, struggling for space, yet somehow forming a single absurd existence.
written by ©JC Bravo
I work primarily with oil paints. It is important for me to achieve a jewel like preciousness in my paintings in order to convey care and importance. I want to give my paintings a monumental and sensual quality that I believe can only be achieved with oil. Also, oil painting gives my work an elegance that balances the sometimes grotesque and fantastical subject matter.
If you would like to know more about me and see more of my work visit my website:
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL ARTWORK IN THIS POST IS A COPYRIGHT OF JC BRAVO. THIS AN AUTHORIZED DUPLICATION WITH PERMISSION AND EXPRESSED CONSENT
Mitchell Pluto 