The Secret Life of Grubs
This is a series of drawings I made in 2013. The drawings are of grubs and insects, transforming, hiding, and emerging from underground. Some of the grubs are safe, some are in danger—there are monsters lurking in some of the drawings. There are flowers and bees and feeding and resting. There is aggression and attack and there is safety and containment.
The drawings are all made with ballpoint pen on individual pages of lined notebook paper cut from a notebook. As soon as I finished a drawing, I numbered it, put it in a folder, and then immediately cut the next piece of paper and began to draw again. I did not look back at or review the drawings during the four month period I was working. Each drawing took between six – thirteen hours to make, depending on the complexity of the individual design. The drawings have a real physical presence, the paper distorted and reshaped by the weight of the pen—they resemble dry fall leaves.
Each drawing is 7-1/2” by 9-3/4”. Ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper.

01 - Left out in the rain

02 - Complicated, know what I mean?

03 - Energy from the husks

04 - Inside the cave

05 - Chlorophyll, cozy inside stem

06 - Attached and feeding

07 - Reaching for the surface with husks

08 - Caught, not upset though

09 - Floating with shadows

10 - Arteries of dirt

11 - It will be hard to leave

12 - Rain storm, sleeping and cozy

13 - Persons with ladders--why escape?

14 - Deep sleep and transformation

15 - Curled, darkness close by

16 - Do not have what I need

17 - Family with shadows and ghosts

18 - Sad or just necessary?

19 - Dreaming of past, future, resting

20 - Meeting, singing

21 - Will they move again?

22 - Which one is my favorite?

23 - What a mess!

24 - Family with emanations

25 - Gall with grub, weak heart

26 - Nightmare with persons and shadows

27 - Tiny grub, small stem

28 - Nightmare with shadows and eggs

29 - Nightmare with laughing shadows

30 - Three grubs, one stem, three shadows

31 - Transformation through suffering

32 - Cave of grubs, each with a story

33 - Flower with grub at center

34 - Death with visitors

35 - Death with witnesses

36 - Thinking of death

37 - Staying or leaving

38 - Grubs and accomplices with shadows

39 - Communicating with pheromones

40 - Me and my spirit

41 - Nightmare with grubs and monsters

42 - Nightmare with husks and jars

44 - Mother and children with nightmare shadows

45 - Mother and child in gall

46 - Mother and child deep in the earth

47 - Carried by sorrow

48 - Emerging into a nightmare

49 - Chaos! Sensation of pulling and tugging

50 - The flower understands

51 - Fruit and seeds with audience

52 - In danger of falling

53 - Indifferent circumstance

54 - Trapped, surrounded

55 - Me? Safe, tucked inside, invisible

56 - Rain of despair - are we protected?

57 - Everyone is rubbernecking!

58 - Friendly, not hungry

59 - Expressway, everything balanced

60 - Deep inside the hive

61 - Witnesses, petals, cluster close by

62 - Show business, on stage

63 - Infestation, petals witnessing

64 - Energy and accommodation

65 - Everyone has intentions

66 - Underground workmanship

67 - Monster invisible? Digestion, working

68 - Little victims are sanguine, content

69 - Complicated hairdo, resting in embrace - delightful!

70 - Spinning out in his dark world

71 - Surrounded by admirers

72 - Trippy, monster has fed

73 - If you get swallowed, just settle in

74 - Even in the winter, even when asleep

75 - Wait to find out

76 - On stage with ghosts and balloons

77 - All this escaping, keep a closer watch

78 - Raging battle, wait it out

79 - Self portrait with hemispheres and synapses

80 - Try to let it out

81 - Fed by empty, hungry for everything

82 - Too bad the prisoners are gone

83 - Standing on two skinny legs

84 - Let me hold you up

85 - Bee swirly

86 - Trying to filter

87 - Filtration system or jello mold, you decide

88 - Standing, satisfied

89 - Pockets of dark with somersaults

90 - Effort, not always successful

91 - Why not celebrate? Look, how nice!

92 - Bare but finished, brain aching

93 - Bees, please don't worry

94 - Flowers and bees

95 - Give up, always an option

96 - Down for the count

97 - If your brain aches, hold on tight

98 - Self portrait with hemispheres and synapses 2

99 - Dark monster with armpits

100 - Highways of commerce

101 - Self portrait with hemispheres and synapses 3