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

James McCracken Jr. made this untitled study for a tattoo book with ink on paper, sometime in 1971. I love the directness of it, the way the images are laid out like a sheet of flash art, ready to be picked and stuck on someone’s body. The ink is applied with confidence, each line a decision. There’s a real clarity to the shapes – hands and skulls, each one with its own twist. I’m drawn to the hand-skull hybrid at the top right, the way the artist combines the skeletal face with a pointing finger. It's so simple, yet it speaks volumes. It's like a memento mori for the age of social media. Thinking about process, you can see how McCracken is playing with signs and symbols. It reminds me a little bit of Philip Guston’s later work. Both artists are using a kind of personal iconography, creating their own language in ink to explore mortality and the human condition. It’s a conversation between artists that transcends time.