I've just had a look at San Francisco artist Jonathan Solo's work and think you should check it out. Solo recently had a sold out, solo show entitled Other at the Catherine Clark Gallery in SF.

Jonathan Solo credits Romare Bearden's careful collaging for his own practice of digital collage -- the preparatory step for what become his hand-drawn images; and he further sites Diane Arbus's photographs as a key influence on his interest in the intersections of male and female identities, queer culture, gender dysphoria, and transgender issues. Solo's own practice is at once a nod to technology and craft. His drawings are often compared to photographs, because of their technical precision assisted by careful assembling of disparate images rendered whole in the computer.

Images are culled from fashion magazines, vintage family photographs, and the female iconography of Catholicism. The resulting montages are studies for what are then translated by his hand into pencil drawings. Referencing their own process (and concept), Solo cuts and re-assembles the hand rendered drawings on a pristine sheet of cream-colored paper. Solo's fine draftsmanship is perhaps all the more impressive since he is self-taught and one of his visual pathways never developed, making him blind in his right eye.

Check out the artist's site, his MySpace artist's page, and images on the gallery's site. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more from Solo in the not so distant future.