The last Sunday of the month, Hyaena Gallery in Burbank, California typically hosts a live drawing event.  For $20, patrons can request anything imaginable in person, by phone or email.  Most months the artist Big Tasty handles the event. But he’s currently in Turkey, so gallery owner Bill Shafer thought it might be fun to call in a big-gun replacement.  And when I learned who he got, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather.

Sunday, September 25, none other than Christopher Ulrich spent the afternoon drawing requests at Hyaena Gallery.

Christopher has the fortune of being one of the rare few in the contemporary art world who is both a brilliant talent and a commercial success.  So when I heard that he would be drawing requests at Hyaena, two things came to mind, slumming and perhaps Hyaena owner Bill Shafer had crazy blackmail material on him.  I asked Bill if he had a stash of naked pictures of Christopher or evidence that he’d killed six people, and Bill replied, I do, but nothing that Christopher would care about.  So I don’t know what motivated Christopher to participate, but I am so glad that he did.

Sporting an “I am Big Tasty” t-shirt that his brother made for him, Christopher graciously fulfilled commissions ranging from the bizarre to the perverse, the sublime to the nightmarish.

He sat behind a small black folding table covered with piles of basic Crayola markers, sharpies, a few crayons, and charcoal.  I was surprised that instead of fancy specialist pens and pencils, most of his art supplies could be obtained in the back to school section of any big box store.  Then, seeing what he can accomplish with such everyman mediums, the adage it’s a poor carpenter who blames his tools came to mind.  Clearly his talent supersedes any need for more precious supplies.

Arriving just after 1pm, I got to request the second drawing of the day.  More than a little intimidated, I shyly described a scene from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but with me in the role as the headless horseman.  Christopher hung intently on my every word, than proclaimed, I see it!  And went to work attacking the paper from all angles.  He produced a ghostly specter charging through a blackened night with her fiery pumpkin mask in hand, that perfectly captures the delicious nightmare feeling of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

The following video shows Christopher’s process from seconds after beginning the drawing until seconds before its completion.

It is such a treat to watch Christopher work.  He dives into each drawing, losing track of time and moving instinctually, without hesitation.  He often narrated what was running through his galloping brain for me, describing the decapitated heroine, ”She’s the maid of the ghouls, the servant girl of darkness.”  He explained that she’d been raped by the villagers, and though the experience was awful at the time, she’s returned to liberate them as they liberated her.  Then he laughed maniacally for several moments before regaining a focused composure.  He described her steed as “the personification of the primordial energy rendered into her power.”  I was thinking to myself that the horse and the dark energy of the scene strongly reminded me of a classic gothic painting, The Nightmare.  No sooner was this thought running through my head than Christopher brought the painting up.  It was a very surreal synergistic moment.  I was in heaven.

Christopher invoked inspiration from other classic masters throughout the day including the Romantics Delacroix and William Blake.  I cannot truly know what resides in his brain, but he seems to merge intellectual awareness and primal feelings in his interpretation of universal visual motifs.  He’s plugged into a cosmic paradigm that feeds his works with a savage intensity.  And though the work is original, there’s a deja vu feeling that you’ve seen or experienced it in another life.

Including the Sleepy Hollow Girl, Christopher produced an astonishing sixteen drawings in over five and a half hours.  And I was transfixed by the rare privilege to study him and ask him questions about the creative process and the universe in general.  I parked myself in the gallery for the duration, feeding off the creative energy like a starving art vampire.

Sunday was an incredible experience.  I LOVE my drawing!!!  It’s officially ushered in the Halloween season and is special beyond words.    I am a very lucky ghoul.

Thank you to Christopher Ulrich and Bill Shafer!  Christopher’s next solo show is planned for December 2012 at La Luz de Jesus Gallery.

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