I’m a straight, white male. 26 years old. By many standards: the average American. As such, I realize that I am the target consumer for millions of products. I know I am the intended audience for never-ending rotational broadcasts of heart-pounding, tear-jerking, laugh-a-minute television. I know that most of the poison Hollywood passes off as cinema has me in mind as its dominant protagonist. I know that I am over-represented in every arena of power in this country and especially throughout the public manipulation sector: the media, advertising, pop culture, etc. Even still: I believe I am grossly and offensively misrepresented.
I believe it is the malicious intent of network heads to intentionally insult me. Every time I turn on the T.V., I can see the big, soft-palmed, and excessively jeweled hand of Rupert Murdoch rear back for another pimp-slap; “Buy this.” Slap. “Buy that.” Slap. “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Slap. “On the next episode of The Real World…” SLAP. “Drink Budweiser,” “All-natural male enhancement,” “smoking marijuana supports terrorism.” SLAP SLAP SSSUH-LAPP! Sadly, as is often the case in abusive relationships, I keep coming back. I know I deserve better, but I can’t control myself. I am not without blame in this respect, but, alas, there are no shelters for battered TV watchers.
Historically, the media has been an escape from everyday drudgery, but, in this current environment, there is no respite from the media. I am humiliated, daily, by a press who incessantly lies to and patronizes me. During my supposed leisure time, I’m forced to accept banality, and superficiality as the status quo. Logos, brand names, celebrities, shock imagery, icons, etc. enter my eyes, zip through my brain and sit somewhere in my memory shackled to whatever product or ideology they’re meant to promote (and, more often than not, they promote the same racist, sexist, and classist agendas that have kept the wealth and power in the hands of the select few).
To put it simply: I paint in reaction to this – I paint because my point of view is not represented. I appropriate and re-contextualize images to more accurately illustrate my perspective. The paintings are laden with ambivalence. It’s an ambivalence born from my trying to reconcile my worldview with the one projected as mine by the media. It’s an ambivalence manifest in traditional figure-ground compositions filled with satirical musings on 21st century American consumer culture. Pieces of contemporary and classical art commingle with pornography, violence, advertisements, images from gossip magazines and religious iconography in landscapes that reference West Virginia, suburban Maryland, Baltimore, New York, and (now) Tucson as well my own invented geography.
My aim is not to just draw the viewer in with familiar images, but to keep the eye and mind active. I give gobs of visual information for the viewer to sort through with no specific start or stop – a compositional concept that I see as analogous to the Internet and its profusion of imagery. By inviting the viewer to get lost in the work, I am prolonging the amount of time spent with the painting and hopefully prompting the viewer to question their role as a spectator and consumer.
I feel it has always been the artist’s duty to present the public with alternative standpoints from which to observe social, political, and cultural issues. From where I stand, I can see plenty deserving of critique. So, this is my vision. Enjoy.