At times my studio felt like a coal mine. Compressed charcoal chunks, soft vine charcoal, pastels, and blackboard erasures covered tables. Long sheets of drawing paper draped studio walls. Ladders enabled me to reach drawings as needed. Walls showed the dusty black handprints of a masked artist at work. Clouds of charcoal dust escaped through the open windows. Freeway clamor and hard-driving music moved me forward, sliding from one drawing to another, working on four or five at a time. One drawing in-progress fed ideas for another.

I like what two art critics said about these large-scale drawings. One wrote: ”Ferreri imbues his allegorical work with wry humor, approachable on many levels.” Another said: “Ferreri creates metaphysical worlds in his richly evocative charcoal drawings.”