RANDY SIMMONS Momma, Love's Bein' Mean To Me, 2023

RANDY SIMMONS  

Momma, Love's Bein' Mean To Me, 2023  

38" x 52" 

charcoal and white conté 

$3,200 

@randysimmonsdrawings 

www.randysimmonsdrawings.com  

The image comes from a 1969 Easter photo my dad took of us: my brother, sister and my mom. I was three and I remember the photo being taken, how bright the sun was even in the morning which is why my hands are cupped over my eyes like binoculars. I’ve recently relied on circles as being a continual part of my imagery, conceptually and compositionally. I wanted to make a drawing that broke down into circles much like a half-tone photo in a newspaper or magazine. The style is inspired by Impressionism and a window privacy decal I put on my bathroom window that breaks images from the outside into ovals. I also was inspired by Chuck Close’s later works where he painted grids and circles with a very similar affect I have with this. 

After watching some tutorials on how to mimic this process in photoshop, I was able to translate the Easter photo into this style. My original idea was to have my brother and myself together with him floating above me and I appeared to be looking for him. Only his lower legs and feet would have been seen as he hovers out of the image. But after giving this composition considerable thought, I cropped the photo to just me and I was thinking about how my drawings are so highly detailed that you need to get close to these pieces. With this drawing, you really have to get away from it in order to see the full image. Much like how my life has been. I am pushing the viewer away. My young self is looking and searching past the viewer, who is forced to distance themselves from the drawing. There’s something haunting about this image. No matter where you stand, the child image will continue to look over your shoulder. 

When I was a kid and my parents weren’t around, I’d call my grandmother across the road when my brother was mean to me.