SHLiCK

SHLiCK, pencil on paper (2013)

This drawing comes from a group of works connected to my time in Alaska. When I was young, I spent several summers there working on fishing boats and in canneries. Some strange things happened during those years.

One character everyone knew at Dragnet Fisheries was “Wild Bill.” He built a huge monsterous stainless steel fish processing contraption that felt like a machine of death when it was in action. Its purpose was simple: process as many fish as possible, as fast as possible. During the season, hundreds of college kids would be flown into the remote village of Dillingham for a few weeks. The goal was to work almost nonstop and rack up enormous overtime paychecks. For me, it was enough money to fund a very modest six months of traveling the world afterward before repeating the process over again.

This drawing shows a random moment on the processing line. In reality there would have been many people working along it. Fish are pouring out of a hopper while one guy stands there cursing in Alaskanese.

What I like most about this piece is the two panel, comic style structure. It introduces a sense of time and a shift in perspective.

Looking back, I think I got a bit lucky with this drawing. As I revisit work from this period, the biggest difference I see between then and now is my understanding of the art making process. Once a drawing is underway, it’s difficult to make major structural changes. At the time, I largely accepted the space I had set up at the beginning. Now my focus is almost entirely on pushing the composition, moving things, changing relationships, constantly adjusting the picture. That’s something I didn’t do here.