FRENZY (2008) is a series of illustrations based on the sociopathic mental states of three real-life murderers: Joseph Kallinger, Andrew Cunanan and Dennis Rader. While researching the backgrounds of the subjects and their violent criminal histories I constructed my own visual interpretations of their pathologies as I understood them. While the content of each drawing maps the dark narratives of the murderer’s actions, the organic but neurotically insistent mark-making consciously references the malevolent internal forces that motivated these crimes.
Despite denying the viewer the chance to identify the subject, a distinct portrait of each criminal is created via a constellation of visual clues. Similar to a crime scene, the drawings offer scores of potential leads, each hinting at the disturbed mental state of the subject. As a consequence the viewer creates his or her own portrait of the subject in their mind. I have also included another work, Mongrel (2008), which explores themes of monstrosity and deformity through classic case studies of teratology such as Jo Jo “the Dog-Faced Boy”.