pestilence revisited: from sketch to painting

may i present to you one of my favorite pieces so far and the sketch that inspired it.
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i sometimes feel like my sketchbooks are my only true works of art.

one in a series of four, i've titled it 011(1) or "famine", though i prefer the numerical title. it's painted with white acrylic house paint, found in a dumpster, black acrylic and turquoise watercolor. the material is a piece of rusted steel, which i found in an abandoned slaughterhouse. there is of course, a secret to this work, as is true with most of my pieces. i actually prefer the sketch, as is true for a lot of the work that comes out of my sketchbook.

the origins of me putting hidden codes and meanings stem's, from all places, the hobbit by j.r.r tolkien. the book is filled with little maps with mysterious languages, and in one chapter, it's revealed that there is hidden writing on a map, only visible in the light of the moon. this set my imagination on fire when i was little and got me into making my own languages and secret maps.

i've carried some of this over to my sketchbooks as well, loading them with puzzles and hidden riddles. 

why? why not!? 

click on the image for the full resolution!