Wits Over Brawn

Title/Artist: 'Wits Over Brawn' by Tommy Sea

Medium: Indian ink, Acrylic Paint, Watercolour Ink, Oil Based Marker
Year Created: 2023

Size (W)x(H): approx 30cm x 30cm

More Info: www.thecornerstudio22.com

Artwork/Artist Description: This powerful image reminds us of the importance of wit over Brawn.

My paintings, drawings and prints are partially inspired by primary images from traditional American tattooing of the first half of the twentieth century. Skulls, snarling panthers, roses, cartoon characters such as Popeye The Sailor Man, screaming eagles, daggers, the Rock of Ages and other religious motifs, pinups and ships. At their best, these basic emblematic forms, sometimes crude but always decisive, were executed with an economy of line and bold shading. The works utilize the direct and irreversible materials of traditional painted tattoo flash: watercolor and ink or the equally ""one way"" process of etched copper.

I was first mesmerized by the world of tattooing at the ripe ol' age of 14, when I walked into a Tottenham tattoo parlor in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. The walls were filled with American style tattoo flash which resembled the cartoons I had been drawing from Cheez TV every Saturday morning. Each codified form had its own rigidly conventionalized style.