Oakland man uses art to tame OCD

The extraordinary degree of photorealistic detail in Ed Loftus’ drawings practically begs viewers to lean in within touching distance of the paper, in disbelief that these small graphite creations are meticulously rendered drawings and not black-and-white photographs.

“It generally makes me happy when that happens because reproducing a photo as exactly as possible is definitely what I was hoping for,” says Loftus, a self-taught, 42-year-old Oakland artist whose latest series of drawings is on view in the new exhibition Ed Loftus:

Technique, however, doesn’t fully explain the emotional power and disquieting nostalgic pull of Loftus’ drawings.

A recurring antique metal diving helmet appears in one drawing (“Come Up at Once, We’re Sinking,” 2013) on the head of Loftus’ father, who is sunbathing in a 1970s swimsuit.

In “Legacy Patterns and Hand-Me-Downs,” a nostalgic vintage snapshot of a family gathered around a television is disrupted by an oversize sunbathing man outside the window.

Loftus, who grew up in Dorset, England, and moved to San Francisco at age 18 to take a shot at professional skateboarding, speaks openly about his lifelong struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“It is strangely comforting, satisfying, to spend as much time with these images as I do,” says Loftus, who draws with a “regular, very sharp pencil” (working from top left to bottom right, to avoid smudges) in his home studio, listening to 1970s rock and public radio, for at least seven hours every day.