Mockingbird Study Skin (detail), 24" x 18", graphite on paper, 1986. Artist's collection.

I made this drawing sometime during the transition between the post-Cartesian and abstract expressionistic images in 1986-87. That was an interesting point in my career. During the day, for several days, I would draw this "study skin" of a Mockingbird as precisely as possible, and in the evenings I would paint my conceptual/abstract images. The Mockingbird, especially its demeanor and song, analogously related to my artistic evolution at that time. When one hears a Mockingbird sing, one hears a mad sequence of disparate fragments of melodic whistles, cries, screeches, and squawks. The Mockingbird's "sequence of sounds" was metaphorically parallel to my sequence of styles, or, "touch all the bases" approach to becoming an artist.

The drawing itself is comprised of four views of the same study skin. A study skin is a preserved carcass of an actual bird of a particular genus and is used for research in the field of ornithology. I held the study skin--approximately 10" in total length--in my left hand and drew with my right hand. Each position of the study skin represents a day's work plus corrections, or, additions made the following day.