Venus, 20" x 12", charcoal and pastel on paper, 1984. Artist's collection.

This pastel drawing was one of several preparatory sketches for a painting I was planning at the time. The idea for the painting revolved around relationships between women and men and I wanted to set up a visual interplay between archetypal symbols of the distinct genders interspersed with contemporary figures of the distinct genders. In this drawing I combined the image of the prehistoric figurine "Venus of Willendorf" with an outline of a more contemporary female form.

This sketch was utilized in the painting at an early phase of the painting's evolution but was painted over as I struggled through the process of resolving the idea and the composition. The resulting work is titled Bee Business which is exhibited in the Cartesian Grid Gallery of this museum.