Untitled 2-4-71 [study for "tattoo" book] 1971

James McCracken Jr. made this untitled study for a "tattoo" book on February 4th, 1971, probably with ink on paper. There's an insistent quality to the repeated skulls and jaws; they were clearly drawn with focus and care. I can imagine McCracken hunched over a desk, carefully rendering each line with a practiced hand. The interplay between the skulls is interesting to me, how they’re stacked one on top of the other. The boldness of the black ink against the stark white paper gives the images a graphic punch. The lines are so precise, yet there’s something organic about the way they form these skull-like figures, like an uncanny totem pole. It reminds me of the work of other artists who explored similar themes of mortality and symbolism, like Kiki Smith or the early works of Basquiat. Artists are constantly in conversation with each other across time and space, riffing on ideas and pushing boundaries. There's an energy that comes through in McCracken’s work, which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, inviting us to contemplate the multiple layers of meaning embedded in these images.