A sense of place has always been important to artists. His studio always provided inspiration for the formation of these fictional gatherings. “My last studio for fifteen years was built in 1852, and there was a horse racing track down the hill, and when you looked out of the south-facing windows you had a panoramic view,” Gordon recalls. “The town has a track-folk vibe that gives birth to many characters. But Skull is a direct response to what I call a ghost or spirit. Not every time, but a lot of the time, when I’m drawing, I’ll feel a presence behind me and the hairs on the back of my neck will stand up, and my There would be heavy pressure on the left shoulder. (It was like) someone putting their hands on my shoulder and watching me paint. So I imagined it as him most of the time, and I started adding skulls to my paintings to celebrate my invisible studio friend.”
He has since moved locations, but the skeleton remains. “My new studio, although it’s an older building, doesn’t have any ghosts,” he adds. “Right now, skeletons are pretty much my way of exploring anatomical poses and how fabric is placed on the body. They’re the bones. They’re the backbone. They’re my most basic visual tool, but also the most useful.”
However, the artist’s fascination with context dates back to his studio days. Gordon was born in 1974 and lived across the street from his cousins in Michigan. He remembers the neighborhood being full of kids and said he probably grew up playing in every yard on his block. He recalls this time as “the most amazing childhood. The colors he remembers from the 1970s are still his go-to palettes,” and “those memories and the visuals of that memory fill me with inspiration now.” Gordon attended the Columbus College of Art and Design in the early 1990s, then transferred to the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. Eventually, he became a member of the RVCA Artist Network program, designing costumes and installations for the program. Different emotions arose in creation at his desk, depending on the medium. “Painting is pure happiness for me,” Gordon said. “My acrylic paintings can be difficult because I know I can paint them over and over again until I get it right.” In most paintings, I draw each character six times. The paintings are like a cabinet of curios and the drawings are posters to me. “
I started adding skulls to my paintings to celebrate mine Invisible studio friends.“
