My paintings thrive off of
stimulation and the power of attraction under the precept that if one employs
more visual stimuli, the better its reception will be. I don’t, however, aim to leave my work
at a purely aesthetic experience but leave the underlying content up to the
viewer. To speak through my
paintings, I employ layers of art historical references, connotations
pertaining to cultural problems and ambiguities, perceptions and misconceptions
of an object based/driven society.
Just as the Bauhaus aimed for a utopian structure of societal
rationalism in the creation of a uniform, rational aesthetic with their
products feeling like they have been made in a factory but were individually
hand-built with integrity, I have made it a point to retain the laborious but
necessary means of process. This
is most heavily shown through the patterning created by individual stencils,
which spans the larger portion of my paintings and the individuality that comes
out of the hand, even though directly molded to maintain a level of uniformity
throughout.
Secondarily, my work speaks
through the lenses of mechanical reproduction and Baudrillardian terms of
simulacrum and artificiality. To obtain a means of representation I utilize simplified, yet recognizable,
imagery to allow for an easier entrance point for the viewer to relate to and
begin decoding my work. My goal is
not particularly that of subversion but to point towards perceptual and spatial
relationship that may lead to misconceptions of necessity or liberation from
the virtual ideal. Through dry
humor, I am speaking to the terms of a disillusioned reality and using
metonymical structures to break into as many vaults of historical tradition
leading to contemporary practices that define our conception of existence.
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Past statements:
My work speaks to contemporary cultural issues of; overstimulation expressed through the use of patterning, perceptions on reality shown through perspectival activation of flatness and color of and from the viewer, myself, and references to art historical context, and contemplation of potentially problematic, visually or audibly communicable, language which construct our society all as tools to create my paintings. I feel that it is integral to open my research to multiple topics at once to make sense of the pluralistic culture we inhabit.
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In considering my position in the art world and as a painter, I am conscious of normative contemporary societal values, which heavily influences my work. The base structures of my considerations stem from the study within semiotics, theology, and sociology. The study of these categorical systems, assist in articulating and analyzing the way I experience human interaction (viewed and experienced), spatial interaction (within an environment), and technological application in society. Through my work, I am able to further contemplate on the imposed frustrations, experiences, and perceptions within the present day.
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The means in which I portray my subject matter directly relates to intention and application. In this relationship, form presupposes an understanding of subjectivity in consideration of color, composition, and symbolism. Flesh is not naturalistically depicted; yet, a believably three-dimensional form is constructed from a two-dimensional surface. Spatial illusion and composition are mostly flat but constructed in such a manner to draw attention to the focal points and create a subtly unsettling image. In addition, my process directly influences the scale of my work. I consider myself most comfortable with an approximate life-size scale due to the mark a particular brush size makes and the room it allows for blending the paint, typically working from the primed surface as ground for an illuminating effect.
Also, I will look to see whom, if not known already, had created the object, the title.
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My work is both an examination and reflection on how society’s values and active norms influence ideas about truth. By truth, I mean to encompass questions such as: what is moral, what is perceivable, what is reality. Through my work I examine society and the individual human, which makes up the whole. I also search to unearth the degree society influences the construction of my identity. The examination and questioning of societal and individual subjective values are integral in the search for an objective truth. I must break through both ideological and subjective thought in order to obtain objective truth, which I realize is possibly unobtainable.
In my investigation I must look first into my perception of the world around me, my humor, thought processes and my ideas about life and death. Since my concerns deal with life and its surroundings, it is logical for me to be interested in portraying naturalism. However, I am not always interested in forming an entirely naturalistic composition or figure. I sometimes represent subjective truth by altering the skin tones of the figures in my paintings from that which is normally perceived. This is my mode of commenting on perception’s intangible qualities.
In addition, my process directly influences the scale of my work. I consider myself most comfortable with an approximate life-size scale due to the mark a particular brush size makes and the room it allows for blending the paint. Moreover, working at this scale tends to allow the viewer to gain an emotional attachment through relationship with the figure. I work on my image in a single obsessive-compulsive ala prima application until I feel that the particular portion is completed. In some cases the image may be painted with full realization and in others the image is painted then altered by smearing the paint or by dripping turpenoid, making the paint run. I use these different styles to show how certain figures in the paintings reject fallacious societal values and the blurring represents their denial leading to transcendence of those values.
American culture’s values of ease and simplicity have led to sedentary lifestyles, whereas I feel that in order to live a good meaningful life one must be actively searching or working towards bettering their own life through decision making and the quest for furthering knowledge. The process in which I apply the paint has a direct correlation to my daily life and attitude toward the contemporary American society. The correlation lies in the dedication and application of work ethic. When I paint I feel compelled to work from start to finish, no matter the time frame involved. Beginning with the under-drawing for the generalized form, I work patiently, starting in one place until I feel satisfied instead of jumping about the painting.
I see my work as the embodiment of the old and new practices and concepts. I work in a fairly traditional framework of techniques and subject matter but relate my work to contemporary issues within our community. Northern Renaissance paintings such as; Jan van Eyck, van der Weyden, and van der Goes have been a great influence on formal aspects such as composition and commitment to naturalism. Southern Baroque painters like Caravaggio have had great impact on how I perceive and understand lighting situations. The contemporary artist Odd Nerdrum has influenced me through his portrayal of naturalism and compositional arrangement. Some of the mid to late modernist movements like minimalism and abstract color field paintings have also worked into my paintings, specifically the stark, flat white or large areas of flat color that inhabit the backgrounds in my paintings. There is a part of my work that is accepting of contemporary artwork and another side that is attempting to subvert or put up an opposition to the commercial pop art world.
