Tree of Life, enhanced view by labornthyn on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Tree of Life version more true to the original than the first one I was able to post (which I will leave up in the gallery for a while for the sake of comparison). The text below is the same as in the other posting of this image.

double A4 Canson Bristol; 0.10 Rotring Rapidograph, black ink

The completion of this work was quite a saga for m personally. It was initiated in December 2000 in an apartment in the city of Tianjin, China, and worked on through an intense time into January 2001, after which for various reasons I fell into a depressed state, and the drawing was left only half completed. I ceased drawing for many months thereafter, during which I landed back in the States for a brief interlude, went on a mad bicycle journey through France, across the Alps and down into Italy to end up in Rome in October 2001, where I was soon able to find a job. I hadn't drawn for so many months, and I had to go to the art store to buy new rapidographs, which I had not even thought to pack in my bicycle bags. In a wonderful room in the Pigneto district in the southeast corner of the city, I began to draw again, this time an ouroboros.

Many months, and many strange times beyond this idyllic life, I once again found myself back in the States in December 2002. I was there to fulfill my fantasy of converting my grandfather's workshop, which had been collecting dust and rubbish for the 25 years since his passing, into my personal live/work/art chamber. Thus I spent 9 months in absolute hermetic solitude, sleeping on a reassuringly solid bed of pine planks I built to raise myself above the concrete floor, from which I could stare up at the deer antlers and old felt hunting hat of my grandfather. Nine hours a day, 7 days a week, for nine months, of solid drawing, drinking vodka and watching anime after finishing the shift at 12:30am.

The second half of the above drawing was begun soon after I acquired this domain, in January 2003, and completed in February. So a total of two years separate the top half of this work from the bottom. The completion felt extremely intense, and the ensuing isolation and focus on art was a revelatory time...

Many thanks to and his gray whiskered familiar...