September 8, 2026
Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend—and for those of you on another planet, I have no clue how yours went! I managed to get some stuff done this weekend, completing a few new pieces. One of them, which you’ll see here, is called ‘Got a Light?’ It was inspired by those old-school men’s magazines from the fifties, which were always filled with absurd ads in the back. Growing up, the color yellow was often associated with the adult industry; passing by a store with a yellow sign and marquee lights usually meant it was a ‘grown-up’ place. Thus the yellow everywhere. While browsing one of these magazines, I found a striking woman smoking a cigarette—I think she might be famous—so I did a digital cutout of her, another of a woman with a coffee cup, and another of the ad page itself. To layer it, I added a digital cutout of a woman drinking coffee from an old Australian women’s magazine.
For the second piece, I started by cleaning my gel plate on a piece of card stock. As I looked at it, I thought, ‘Why not reuse it?’ I have a stash of playing cards I use for various collages, and I wanted to explore the concept of chaos. Playing cards carry so many emotions—gambling, heartbreak, and pleasure. When I was in the Navy, waiting on a flight to leave an aircraft carrier, I would play Solitaire constantly to kill time. You never know when the plane is actually going to leave; it’s always just ‘sometime today.’
So, I decided to take a Queen of Hearts, a King of Hearts, and a Jack of Clubs and tear them to pieces. The King is the ‘suicidal King’ with a sword through his head, and the Queen of Hearts has been a fixture in song and literature for years. I wanted to create a chaotic scene of betrayal: the Jack has moved in to take over, the King is forced out, and the Ace stands by like a synister scavenger of sorts. Basically, I wanted to capture the Queen of Hearts breaking up with the King—a whirlwind of chaos.
For those of you heading back to work, I hope you don’t have a holiday hangover. I’m planning to work on a couple more pieces this week. Have an awesome day, and hang in there in this crazy world. Nobody really knows what they’re doing, but that’s always been the way. Peace and love to you all; be good to each other, and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Love, Mark