Down Under the Blue Moon Overpass (DUBMO)
2007 - 16"x20" Acrylic, colored pencil, charcoal, oil pastel, on canvas
Finished with three coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish #1312
(Not For Sale)

This painting has a disjointed look to it, and there's a good reason. I started this painting in 2005. It was my first painting on canvas, but not my first completed painting. Since I was never happy with it, the painting sat in a pile and I periodically tried to rework the sections that I was dissatisfied with. The stick figure on the left, with blue lips, is from the original 2005 painting. The rest of the painting was reworked in 2006, then reworked again, and completed in September 2007.

There were two more stick figure people in the middle section, but I painted over them with black gesso and added the white oil pastel. The pharaoh was sort of an accident. I started painting and eventually it began to look Egyptian, so it turned into a pharaoh. I struggled with the upper blue corner not knowing what to do with it. It was a few different colors, with green being the previous color. The blue moon and camel were the final additions. There was a smaller camel walking upside-down on the moon, but it didn't look the way I imagined, so he was painted over. I couldn't remember how to make that particular shade of blue, so I ended up using a white-blue to cover the camel, then paint around the moon to blend in. My sketching ability is poor, so I practiced the camel on a piece of paper, but the one in the painting is actually better than any of my sketches.

The title was inspired by an area in Brooklyn called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).