Remembering a friend who died today

I just found out that my friend Vance died this morning.

He used to come to my house and sit and talk art. Sometimes we'd just draw. Sometimes we'd do matting.

He brought over a bunch of pictures of dragons, wanting me to do a chinese dragon for him, for his tattoo.

I never found the time. Always putting other people's work ahead of his. He said it was cool, just to let him know when I get a spare moment.

I should have found a spare moment. I will do that now.

He was on deviantart. He did some beautiful photography, and very dark photomanipulations.

wreckles.deviantart.com

I went through his gallery with him several times. We would talk about art and the work he was doing. Not nearly enough, there was so much I wanted to talk with him about. So.. the least I can do is share some of his work. 

One of his favorites was his Dreamking piece. He was so struck by the Sandman comics, that he wanted to do a piece for it... eventually it went in another direction, but he loved this piece evne more for it: 



This was a book cover he did, that was one of my favorites of his. I kept trying ot coax him into doing a series of dark fairy tale art, but he had turned more towards religious pieces at that point, so put a continuation of this series on the back burner: 



This piece I remember well, because he got an award for it at a convention we both attended. I can't remember if it was best monochromatic, or best photography.. or maybe it was best photo manip. But I do remember the way he GRINNED when he got it. I don't think I'd seen him that happen before. But he was so overjoyed to be recognized for his work.



His first DD. We talked about it a few weeks ago, and he was still floating on cloud nine from it. He had been doubting doing pure photography with minimal photomanipulation. He wasn't sure about his skills as a photographer, and so was anxious to do anything serious. But he got a model, he took a photo.. and this came into being. Such an intense statement, something os many of us can understand.



he was SO SCARED when he did this piece, to post it or show it to anyone. He wanted to make statements, about religion, but at the same time didn't really want to be hateful? He wasn't sure.. but he loved this piece so much that he just took a leap and DID it. I was so damn proud of him when he finished this piece. 



This was probably my favorite of his photomanipulations. It is so compelling, and so frightening. I loved every bit of it. 



And this piece, he was such a spaz. He got it printed on metallic paper, just to make the fire glow. Then sat there for an HOUR, kid you not, rolling that paper back and forth to make the fire dance. He got very fond of metallic prints and how they just.. sparked life through the piece.