Untitled 2-8-71 [study for "tattoo" book] 1971

James McCracken Jr. drew these images, these studies for a "tattoo" book in 1971. Look at the hands, each morphing into something else, like a skull, pointing this way and that! I can imagine McCracken bent over this paper, letting his imagination flow through the pen. A skull with a snake slithering through its eye sockets. Hands pointing or gesturing. All so decisive! The heavy black line and white space create such high contrast and drama. It’s like an alphabet, and the artist is inventing a language on the page, a language of symbols. The human skull is such a potent symbol, often connected to life and death, but rendered here in such a playful way that it’s totally alive. There's a little bit of Mad Magazine humor in there, maybe some hot rod art, a touch of Robert Crumb. Artists are always talking to each other, even across time, in this crazy visual conversation. It's the pleasure of looking that keeps us all going.