This has to be my favorite image that I ever created. I have drawn it three times, and have adopted it as my company logo. The title is taken from the old adage, “Necessity of the mother of invention.” If industry and technology are the child of Necessity, then pollution is her stepchild. I started drawing this image in 1983, and you can really see how it has evolved over the years, along with my style!

This version (above) is from the late 80’s. It was part of a series of four pen & ink drawings, which I printed as weird greeting cards to be sold in gift shops. I got them into a few shops in upstate New York, but they didn’t sell very well. I’ve tried to sell my work in so many ways over the years….

Here is the very first drawing I made of Necessity’s Stepchild. It is crude (and a bit embarrassing, actually), as I did this in 1983, when I was a tender 23 years old. You can see my initials and date, hidden in the gold border at the bottom right. This is how I was drawing in college and post-college: a blend of pen & ink and colored pencil, and very tight (in a bad way). My technique improved a lot in the following years, by constantly drawing, drawing, drawing!