"Pulp Fiction: Vol 1, The Smoking Gun"
Mixed Media, Acrylic, Epoxy | 2018

This piece marked my first exploration of pulp fiction aesthetics, the gritty tradition of mid-century short story magazines and crime paperbacks. The work came together after a neighbor's flooded unit led to an unexpected gift: 50 years of Playboy magazines. The advertisements, articles, and photography from these issues became foundational source material for this series and others that followed.

The composition pays homage to Charles Bukowski's novel Pulp, his final work written during his years in Los Angeles the same city where I was living and working at the time. The piece channels Bukowski's raw, unvarnished take on LA life: the desperation, dark humor, and stark beauty of a city that chews people up. Like Bukowski, I was drawn to the layers beneath the glossy surface, finding poetry in the discarded and overlooked.