Helix series

Artist statement

Many of the characters in my paintings originate from napkin sketches and doodles on bill envelopes. I began drawing these figures in the late 1980s, and over the years, they have continued to evolve, demanding a life of their own. I find joy in the raw immediacy of pen and ink sketches. I’ve sketched these characters in notebooks, on loose-lined paper, bill envelopes, and cocktail napkins—drawing on napkins, in particular, is quick and liberating.

These Boschian and Giacometti-inspired figures first emerged in my painting practice in the early 1990s, when I began working with oil stick and oil pastel in pieces like The Sadistiks. The first time that I drew The Sadistiks characters was in an oil-stick painting titled Beautiful, exhibited at the Gallery at the Piano Factory in Boston. I revisited these figures in Los Angeles in 1993 and again in San Francisco between 1994 and 1997, while living in the Castro. Works such as The Mourners, Angel goes West, Flying Crosses, and The Dart Throwers were exhibited in the Viridian Artists Emerging Artists Show in NYC in 1995 as a semi-finalist.

Over time, the bots, beasts, ghosts, TVs, Sadistiks, angels, and boxes with legs have evolved into playful and spirited biomorphic forms. These sprite-like, inquisitive characters often populate my painted ecosystems.

I began integrating my ink sketches into full-scale paintings in 2004, while living in South Boston. Works like Cake, Bloody Mary, Flying Crosses, Us Together, Forest, The Gift, Suburban Gothic, and Super Hero, Super Freak are examples of how these casual pen-and-ink sketches gradually transformed into larger scale paintings.

— Macaulay Woods, December 2024