Visual Essays

 





These images are grouped by theme. Looking through my sketches long after they are drawn
gives me perspective on what I might really have thinking about, what larger ideas were rolling 
around in my head that I couldn't see at the moment. Sketchbooks are like compost heaps that
ripen into something better over time. They are the root source of ideas.
For me Visual Essays are where my ideas start to make sense.


I got an call about illustrating a catalog for a technical college and started 
thinking about wood, auto, engine repair, electronics and print shops... all courses 
I could have taken in high school. Then I started wondering about 
all the things that could go wrong and how crazy it might get if 
the teacher left the students to their own devices.









Gino Severini, one of the founders of the Italian Futurist movement
grew up in the Tuscan hill town of Cortona where there is 
 a marvelous collection of Etruscan art. It is not hard to imagine 
that he would have experienced this work while living there.
If so, he surely would have been affected by its bold design and 
"modern" sense of abstraction. Being classically trained he 
might sketched those lively sculptures and used the 
observational drawings as inspiration for his Futurist work. 
That is the premise for this collection of images.










"Tire Change" is about a tire that doesn't want to be changed.




"Strategies for Effective Time Management :
ThingsYou Do When You ShouldBe Paying Attention" 

This started out as a long series of free association drawing (doodles?) done during 
faculty meetings.This is a sample of the 48 or so images from that collection.







"The Greater Journey" in which Popeye discovers his European heritage...



"Hodag"

Hodags are mythical, ferocious beasts of the north woods. The word hodag is also used 
to describe grumpy, old, solitary men up in northern Wisconsin. These images 
accompany an essay about my father turning into a hodag after my mother passed on. 








"Italian Lessons" were realized as a mashup of my experiences over one 
summer in the Tuscan hill town of Cortona. I found myself intrigued by 
small objects, textures and details in the landscape, the mix of past and present 
and the beauty soaked but often troubled history of the place.





  





This is an excerpt from a long series of drawings about 
"Life in Oconee County." I guess these could be listed as sketches, essays
or architectural drawings.



Popeye The Sailor visits the Orient on the USS Olive in "Deep Siamese."


We had a really dangerous wolf tree on our property and it took all the power in heaven 
to clean up the mess. Our tree guy Rick, named his children and his company 
after the Prophets... Jesus, Mohamed and finally Buddha.




One evening watching TV news and sketching what was going on.
I could NOT believe how many utterly dispiriting events were taking 
place at the same time in America, and over the years It has only gotten worse.



Watching "Patton" and sketching my impressions...




All images © 2020 Alex Murawski


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