Illustrations

This page serves as a collector for a small handful of drawings I’ve attempted since March 2020. The lines add up, they X, then diverge. The divergences aerate possibilities, and then I return evening after evening to touch penpoint to glass, and with the smallest of mark-making efforts, try again. Selected illustrations are also posted at Redbubble, where they are tchotchke-casted onto a handful of different products (e.g., prints, note cards, stickers); if you would like to see something below available on Redbubble, please write to me at dereknmueller -at- gmail dot com, and I’ll tend to it as soon as I can.

Cirque du Felinity Series – October 2022 to April 2023

Plaid Series – January to March, 2022

Pandemic Bestiary Series – April to December, 2020

After several months of learnerly playing around in Procreate, I developed a series of twelve drawings in between April 5 and April 24, SMSing one every other day or so to Ph. and Is. as a pandemic good-morninggram. Each drawing is named with a verb and its number in the series (e.g., Protect #1). The initial goal was to create a set of twelve. I continued beyond that though with no particularly clear exigence or goal. At the end of 2020, there are 30 in the set.

Poolside Series – Summer 2020

As Summer 2020 surrendered to ridiculous and unprecedented work demands, I began to miss time in the water. I remained in Virginia, away from Michigan’s lakes, and reduced significantly the number of swims I might’ve enjoyed otherwise. Made it to Claytor Lake twice. 😪 That’s it. The series carries over the bestiary into a pool view, aerially surveilled not unlike the pool at the Michigan condo made unavailable by the pandemic. This series is unfinished, on suspended float, contentedly and indefinitely.

Fasciashed Mesh Series – September to December 2020

The masked-unmasked figures in this series conjured themselves as expressions of the everyday–work pressures, a shooting and standoff near to where I was staying in Michigan in September 2020, toggled themes exploring absurdities, grotesques, and (dis)symmetries. 🎭 These continued throughout the the fall months. By year’s end, there were 20 pairs in the set.

Institutional Service Tarot (IST) Deck

Institutional Service Tarot (IST) is a lampoon gift deck rendered from markerboard drawings I made in my Pray-Harrold Hall office at Eastern Michigan University between 2011-2013. They are meant as good humored reminders to pre-tenure and teaching faculty to let others carry a fair measure of the water, so to speak. They are available for purchase at https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/ewm.