I do drawings in series, as project ideas, working a theme from the sub-narrative or unpredictable edges. I define a drawing that works as one that cannot be used to protect oneself from one's own sense of wit.

I think the social or political begins to live in a drawing through unexpected situations, allowing one to savor a small fragment of context. The acceptance of numbness from over stimulation by a contemporary issue is a facing of the page. It's a daily page made of rag and paralysis waiting for the stumbling of a wet brush. The act of trying to feel something that is at least alive in the hand. A drawing diary against the blunting flow of information too cleaned and trimmed to support the weight of its own absurdity.

The current series is about Artillery. The world of iron, the love of the cannon, the big gun. The way in which it has become rather like shopping for a new way to blow something up, with all the extra's and air conditioning, and even a shell can have a little brain hunting its target in flight.

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Since 1970, Roger Clay Palmer has produced poetry, paintings, installations, and a  large body of drawings. He grew up on a ranch in Florida listening to family members tell stories, and his work reflects his love of  Southern oral tradition. Strongly affected by his experiences in the army before being discharged as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war, he often focuses on the dark side of current events. Six weeks in Japan in 1985 deeply affected his work; as with Japanese haiga and Zenga, words are an indispensable component of his  brush and wash or ink drawings. 

His installations of drawings and artifacts have been shown in such venues as Diverseworks in Houston (solo and group shows),  NEXUS in Atlanta, Southeastern Center for  Contemporary Art in Winsten-Salem, NC, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL., Jacksonville Museum of Art, FL; Tampa Museum of  Art; and Ringling (FL) Museum of Art, which purchased an installation for their permanent collection. He has received a regional NEA Grant, two Florida Individual Artists grants, as well as grants to do installations at Miami Waves Film Festival, Nexus, and The Artists' Alliance in Tampa, FL. He participated in a NEA funded collaborative performance work, "Smarter than Dogs", and a collaborative project with PWA’s which traveled to Miami and Orlando.  He has self-published 3 books, one of which ( The Inheritance and Other Stories ") is archived at Franklin Furnace, NYC and has had  poetry and/or images published in Sonoma Review (U. of Arizona), the Journal of the NEA, and Tabloid Magazine.  In 2008, he had a solo show “In Dog Light” at USF Contemporary Art Museum, and was in “Dark Poets” at Maryland Institute College of Art’s Decker Gallery.