Playing the starving artist, I become an observer of life rather than its participant. Making the cafe my studio where the simple beauty and pleasures taken for granted congregate, fascinates and drives me, subject-wise. Women epitomize that philosophy. Portrait or figurative, before I draw, my models have to have the look of the every-woman, what I call the face. When I can’t find the face my focus not mood swings; reproduction, triptychs, still-life, t-shirts, and now scenes being the latest itch.

Lines, darkness, light — defines and confines these depiction’s much like life. How each plays off the other dominates my little gray cells where imagination and possibility await realization or frustration. Simple graphite and white charcoal sells this artist’s conundrum nicely. Two-tone constraints does wonders for stoking creativity and difficulty, a perception shaded by the Dürer grid method but an absolute rule broken when circumstance and effect demands color’s power absolutely. Sticking with the Renaissance masters, I don’t care for ultra-realistic fine pencil work. Impressive, but I want my scribbles looking like drawings not faux photographs. Drawing inside and outside the box, subtle cross-hatching or the tattoo artists needle-like tapping affords enough detail reproduction to awe not mislead the senses.

You can usually find me at Rockin Joes, Cafe Beethoven, Drip, or the Livingston, Summit, Milburn, or Westfield Starbucks on the weekends
So if you live or frequent the Livingston/Chatham/Madison/Summit/Millburn/Westfield New Jersey area respectively stop by and say hi) on the weekends.

And if you see anything that tickles your fancy go for it…buy something. Originals too are available for sale but only genuinely interested parties please. An expanded line of double-sided t-shirts are available at http://www.printfection.com/thecornerartist. Or, perhaps you want something custom-drawn, I do commissions. Female figuratives and portraits a speciality. (e-mail me for prices, terms, and conditions.) So please call again….

UPDATE: DUE TO WEBHOST SITE REVISION, I AM UNABLE TO UPLOAD THE NEWEST ART ON THE FOLLOWING PAGE. NEWER ART CREATED AFTER 10/1/10 RESIDES AT www.redbubble.com/people/steventorrisi

Cheers
Steve Torrisi (aka “The Corner Artist”)

NOTE: "My art sales are powered by RedBubble.com. Since February 2007, RedBubble has shipped more than 240,000 premium-quality works of art and t-shirts to over 70 countries worldwide. RedBubble offers a simple money-back guarantee, gold star customer service, and assures safe online transactions by using 128-bit SSL encryption – an industry standard. RedBubble accepts five different currencies including USD, AUD, CAD, EUR and GBP, and accepts credit cards as well as PayPal.”