Artwork Description
Damaged Bear 72 Original Color Marker Drawing by Jermaine Rogers on Wove Fine Art Paper Modern Street Pop Artwork.
2007 Signed Original Marker Ink Drawing Size 6.5x10. "Something is very wrong with me: I am falling apart...'"
Damaged Bear 72 by Jermaine Rogers – Psychological Symbolism in Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork
Damaged Bear 72 is a 2007 original marker ink drawing by American artist Jermaine Rogers, executed on wove fine art paper and measuring 6.5 x 10 inches. Signed by the artist, the piece is an emotionally raw and visually haunting entry in Rogers’s ongoing exploration of vulnerability, identity, and collapse. The drawing features a wide-eyed bear figure rendered in loose, expressive linework with patches of red that appear as wounds or signs of decay. Numbered 72 on its forehead and accompanied by hand-lettered text reading Something is very wrong with me: I am falling apart, the artwork merges character design with psychological confession. This bear is not a mascot or a toy—it is a vessel for emotional trauma, painted with urgency, humor, and existential dread. The piece exists as a stark and poignant work within the world of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork, where imagery speaks louder than exposition.
Visual Language of Inner Collapse
The bear figure is a recurring character in Jermaine Rogers’s visual universe, often used to explore themes of innocence broken and identity under pressure. In Damaged Bear 72, the character’s sagging posture and panicked eyes suggest disorientation and surrender. Red ink blots mark its body like open wounds, and its blank, swirling irises indicate an emotional unraveling. The text above the figure reads like a journal entry or whispered confession, turning the drawing into a narrative fragment that blends visual and literary anxiety. Rogers uses minimal color—mostly black, pink, red, and cyan—but every mark contributes to the sense of urgency and internal fragmentation. The simplicity of materials contrasts the complexity of message, a method that aligns with the unfiltered nature of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork.
Marker Drawing as Emotional Broadcast
Executed entirely in marker on fine art wove paper, the drawing reflects immediacy and tactile presence. The lines are loose, intentional, and flawed in a way that enhances their sincerity. Rogers’s use of bleeding ink and uneven pressure brings a sense of performance to the act of drawing, capturing not just form but emotional atmosphere. The paper holds every smudge and hesitation, turning what could be a sketch into a finished emotional document. The bear’s open expression, numbered forehead, and decaying appearance resonate as symbols of individuality lost in systemic tension. In the context of graffiti and pop character traditions, Rogers’s bear stands apart by leaning into fragility instead of bravado.
Jermaine Rogers and the Anatomy of Emotional Resistance
Damaged Bear 72 represents Jermaine Rogers at his most exposed, offering a piece that is both a visual statement and a confessional artifact. His work operates where emotion meets iconography, turning cartoonish figures into messengers of truth and despair. In the world of Street Pop Art & Graffiti Artwork, this piece is not about street dominance or design flash—it is about the quiet, painful moments that define human experience. Rogers’s ability to inject philosophical and emotional gravity into character-driven imagery places him among the most nuanced voices in the genre. This bear does not roar—it pleads, stares, and disintegrates in front of the viewer, offering no solutions, only honesty. That honesty is what transforms Damaged Bear 72 from a sketch into a relic of modern anxiety, drawn in lines that refuse to lie.
