James Pustorino 

This is a selection of large-scale works spanning two decades which seek to describe or create a space for the soul. The drawings present  aspects of both the physical world we are in and imagery that suggests the inner world we experience; emotions, thoughts, aspirations, memory. Using realistic and abstract form, architectural and mathematical structure, narrative panels, text, and a wide format suggestive of a film, scroll or comic strip, I seek to describe or tell the story of our internal reality.

 

In the earliest image here, completed in the time after 9/11, a couple rebuilds their lives in the midst of threatening disaster. Everything Shatters… a response to a bombing of an Israeli disco was also about recovering what was lost.

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The two Limbo pieces are about a state of waiting, enduring and becoming. The Invisible Resolve of Night… started with an image of a lion on a birthday card given to me by my mother-in-law and contains symbols that represent memories of my mother and a depiction of the Mont-Saint-Michel Monastery on an island in France. In What Umbrella…and By the Time We Realized…both concerning the transience of our lives, my wife, Jill is the subject

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The Limbo work from 2014 is a fictionalization based partly on my experiences exploring the Appalachian trail when I was 21, and partly on a character from my Universechild series. The recently finished “Monarca”returns to the wide narrative format with imagery concerning the life of slain Butterfly Refuge proponent, Homero Gomez Gonzalez in Mexico.