This 1992 painting is a key example of my interest in “automatic” art, approaching the work surface with no idea or preconception—just letting the image flow out automatically. This process began in earnest with watercolors and acrylics in the mid 1980s. It was a way for me to “rediscover myself” after two decades of creating images to order for tattoo commissions and remains a primary component of my studio method.

Virile Music began with the turban and gorilla head, then quickly evolved downward with a snake, classic high- heeled and stockinged legs of a pinup, and the snake transformed into a rope. The weird bugs and butterflies swarming around the action are rendered in a bold “art brut” cartoon style favored by Bert Grimm, one of my early teachers. These classic tattoo themes, along with a turban with “Cyclops” jewel (probably unconsciously inspired by the great Duck cartoonist, Carl Barks) combine to create a new, mysterious scenario. The title came to me as the painting was completed, as they usually do. It was done in one sitting, ink and watercolor on illustration board, and continues to hang at my work station at Tattoo City. The painting traveled widely in the exhibition Eye Tattooed America which I curated in 1994, initially at the Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago, and was reproduced in the show catalog of the same name, published by Hardy Marks.