While growing up, I watched a number of Westerns and was always fascinated by the outlaws. This image was inspired by the idea of a gun-toting and guitar playing outlaw preacher strolling into some random western town. The original concept drawing was created to be used as a poster design for a rockabilly show here in town. The show never happened and rather than abandon the concept, I went ahead and finished it.

Every so often, I'll create an illustration using Adobe Illustrator for the sole purpose of getting more practice drawing the human form. Such was the case with this pin-up illustration of a perky nude blond with hair in her face turning toward the viewer in front of an abstract blue background.

Another ink painting from the theory of Neo-Elegance. This piece was inspired by the description for the sculpture in 'The Stoddard Temple of The Human Spirit' from Ayn Rand's novel, "The Fountainhead". The dimensions of the canvas follow the golden ratio (1:1.618) and the curls of her hair are made using golden spirals. Many of her proportions also match the golden ratio. A precious metal drawing was used as the substructure of the image that was then overlaid with multiple washes of diluted India Ink to build up the shadows and highlights.

This was the first oil painting in what was planned to be a series of four images depicting the four seasons (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer). As the wind blows the leaves around her, she pulls her shawl over her shoulders to cover her bare breasts from the chill. It along with the others were inspired by the work of the Art Nouveau artist and father of impossible arabesque hair, Alphonse Mucha. The dimensions of the canvas follow the golden ratio (1:1.618) to lend better visual appeal to the overall image. As I had done with the Neo-Elegance paintings that I created before, a precious metal drawing was used as the substructure of the image, before overlaying it with oil paint.

A few months after I illustrated the poster for My Goodness Gracious and The Terrors, I was asked by a member of My Goodness Gracious to work up the above illustration featuring the "Ant Pack" playing a game of pool.

The first piece of Neo-Elegance furniture. It combines the geometric qualities of Art Deco with the free-form biomorphs of Art Nouveau. The shelving unit is only held together with pegged mortise and tenon joints. No glue, nails, or screws were used or necessary. This allows the unit to be broken down flat for shipping or storage.

One of my last experiments in Neo-Elegance etched glass. This piece focuses on the deconstruction of the female form applied to the underlying pattern formed by the grain in a piece of wood. In it, she is lying down on her side with her leg curled up to her chest. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get a good photograph of a glass etching when it is laid directly atop the wood panel it is mounted to, making the details in this piece difficult to see.

Promotional poster for the Foundations of Neo-Elegance art show in February 2007 at Gregory's Piano Bar in Dayton, Ohio. The poster is a monochromatic representation of Neo-Elegance incorporating the perfect rectangle, Art Nouveau arabesque hair, patterns within patterns, Art Deco angular angels and the use of a central figure from the Italian Renaissance. Poster dimensions also follow the golden ratio (1:1.618).

Date: February 21st, 2007
Location: Gregory's Piano Bar - Dayton, Ohio
Artists: Benjamin M. Bader and Jason Dryden
Music: Julian Rai

This piece was my first and only experiment with hand engraving Zippo lighters. Using a Zippo I received for filling out a questionnaire for Marlboro and a graver's scribe I picked up at the flea market, I engraved the image of a simplified female nude with long flowing arabesque hair (that I drew while figuring out the look I was aiming for with the Neo-Elegance art theory) onto the side of the cigarette lighter. To help bring out the engraving and add more contrast, I rubbed ink into the grooves left by the scribe.

Based on the charcoal gesture drawing, "A Moment in Time", this etched glass image of a standing nude woman twisting her body to lean on a vase was the first formal piece of artwork I created under the Neo-Elegance art theory. As a deconstruction of the human form using glass, it begs the question of whether the glass etching is the work or the shadow cast on the wall by the etching.

The first foundational piece of artwork under the theory of Neo-Elegance to test the validity of the theory. In this work, the deconstruction of the human form is at its peak. The female form itself has been reduced to three lines combined with a simplified form of arabesque hair from the Art Nouveau period.

For awhile I was going through a serious Art Nouveau kick and sketched out a large number of designs based on the work of Alphonse Mucha. Within these sketches, I designed a series of images that depict a nude faerie emerging from the center of a flower and surrounded by a decorative background. After letting these designs sit for awhile, I decided to try my hand at painting one of them. The result was "Iris", showing a nude redheaded faerie emerging from the center of an iris and stretching.

The idea behind this acrylic on Masonite painting was based on the "What if...?" scenario of "What would the Little Debbie snack cake girl look like when she grew up?". Inspired by the works of Alberto Vargas and nosecone pin-ups from WWII bombers, I set about creating the Little Debbie pin-up girl. Part of a two-part acrylic painting series with "Salty".

In November of 2005, I experimented with a number of long exposure digital photographs of street lights while driving down the road at night. These sat unused in a folder on my computer until August of 2006, when I created a series of digitally manipulated photographic abstracts that turned the images into patterns. My intention with this piece in the series, is that 72 prints (5" x 5") would be made and tiled together to form a 20" x 90" pattern that mimics African textiles, but I was never able to find a cost-effective print service to use.