Nathan Ver­nau is an artist liv­ing and work­ing in Chicago, hav­ing recently moved from Wis­con­sin. His draw­ings are heav­ily influ­enced by sequen­tial art and sto­ries, and nar­ra­tive is impor­tant in the scope of Nathan’s work.

I really like his state­ment about his work. It’s con­cise and introspective:

The objects I include with my fig­ure come from real and unreal places cre­at­ing the imag­i­nary land­scape of my mind. Through­out the work these sym­bols touch on themes of insta­bil­ity, inse­cu­rity, con­fu­sion and a mis­di­rec­tion of emo­tions. As self-portraits these draw­ings offer bits and pieces of my char­ac­ter, along with alter­nate iden­ti­ties or per­sonas. By chang­ing cos­tumes there are dif­fer­ent stages of con­fi­dence and inner con­flict that I find myself in.

By draw­ing myself in self-deprecating poses I am able to tem­porar­ily rid myself of anx­i­ety and over­whelm­ing thoughts. My art­work chron­i­cles my life cycling through frus­tra­tion, hap­pi­ness, con­fu­sion, and dis­ap­point­ment. Spe­cific, per­sonal expe­ri­ences that can be uni­ver­sally relat­able act as the stim­u­lus for my draw­ings. As a ver­bally inhib­ited per­son my work has become the most direct and hon­est way for me to express the emo­tions and feel­ings that occupy my mind.

All images via his pro­file on the Brook­lyn Art Project.