Untitled 1-24-71 [study for "tattoo" book] 1971

James McCracken Jr. made this ink drawing, Untitled 1-24-71, as a study for his book ‘tattoo’. The marks are raw, energetic, and kind of obsessive. It's like he's channeling something, or maybe just letting his hand do the thinking. I'm drawn to the crude materiality of the ink on paper. It’s not trying to be precious or slick. You can see the pressure of the pen, the way the ink bleeds a little into the page. The skulls and bugs are like doodles from a dark dream, each one rendered with just enough detail to be recognizable, but with a kind of wildness that keeps them alive. There's one ant, for example, marching forward, its legs like frantic little dashes. McCracken reminds me a little of Forrest Bess, another outsider artist who was totally committed to his own strange vision. Like Bess, McCracken seems to be mapping out his own internal world, inviting us to take a peek without offering any easy answers. Art like this is more about the questions than the answers anyway, right?