Do

What is up with all the high angle pics certain women post on social media? I understand that it’s a simple trick to make yourself look more attractive, but why are we not more self aware that we are blatantly trying to obscure our true selves? So high angle pics make you look more attractive but then many women will complain about the people these pics inspire to contact them…and yet they continue to post them, every day, over and over.

So what? Who cares? Well not only is it interesting to me that so many people will repeatedly use such obvious tricks, but why it works! The angles of pics incorporate aspects of both physical and philosophical relativism. The subjective “truth” of how beautiful someone is depends on the relative angle of the observer.

Relativism about truth is the claim that what is true for one individual, or one social group, may not be true for another and that every effort to adjudicate between context-dependent standards of truth and falsity is bound to be futile.

ScienceDirect.com

But it isn’t only for women. Men can appear to be more attractive and dominant, accentuating features of male prowess by taking pics from LOWER angles.

The journal Psychological Science (Makhanova et al., 2017).

• People’s physical position relative to others may shape how those others perceive them.
• people use relative physical position to manage impressions by strategically positioning themselves either higher or lower relative to ostensible observers.
• Five studies supported the prediction that women take and display photographs portraying themselves in a low relative physical position to highlight their youthful features and appear attractive
• whereas men take and display photographs portraying themselves in a high relative physical position to highlight their size and appear dominant. 
• as do members of other social species, people use relative physical position to manage social impressions, and although these impression-management strategies may have deep ancestral roots, they appear to manifest themselves through a contemporary human modality-photographs.

Women

…being viewed from above (a downward angle) amplifies signs of youth and attractiveness, such as having a large eyes and forehead, and thus appears to be consistent with women’s motives.

Indeed, women appear more attractive when their heads are tilted down and they are thus viewed from a downward angle.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28485703/

Men

“Being viewed from below (an upward angle) amplifies
signs of dominance, such as height and a large jaw, and thus appears to be consistent with men’s motives.

Indeed, targets appear more dominant when their heads are tilted back and they are thus viewed from an upward angle.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28485703/

Interestingly, the researchers found that men and women take pictures from different angles depending on their motive.

And so I am working on this series of paintings that feature high angle pics of women that accentuate their feminine beauty. I incorporate an unsettling gaze into the view’s eyes that shows a bold, unwavering confidence in what they are doing. Also included are examples of mating displays from the animal kingdom as well as hints of underlying discomfort that is always present when you can’t back up the reality you’re trying to project.

So have the fence pickets, low end lowbrow stuff run its course? Or am I just painting the wrong things on it? I think I’m too tight on a surface that is too unforgiving. Am I getting ready to leave Texas for Illinois and need to switch to something more vertical (Chicago) and horizontal (prairie)?

I’m thinking layers as parts of a personality and personal history in a tall, vertical form at that resembles the human form with a slightly off center square on top for the head. Could work in expressive hands on the body and partially obscured face in the square.

This is how I could do portraits of cops who shot innocent people. Lot so fabric layers depicting white privilege and American idealism and mythological righteousness.

I could be how I paint looser and allow the ground to be incorporated into the imagery and rework the surface and generally beat the hell out of things.

The pickets can be used to make frames and ornamentation and overlays and cutout embellishments like I use now. I could use new woodworking tools to assemble rustic frames and a Dremel to carve elements.

I can bring the rectangle back and then break from it through addition rather than subtraction. The enclosed painted layered rich surface is the sacred, isolated, precious otherness. The magical realm separated from the rest of reality.

This same type of thing can be done with relief prints as well. different pieces cut and inked and assembled on a page one at a time.

So it’s been a while since I started hearing about this. It finally bounced around in my head long enough for it to work its way back out again as a kernel of an idea. It’s pop culture. It’s fraught with emotion, pain, ignorance, smug indignation and denial. In other words, it’s perfect fodder for a painting.

And with this being Texas, there is all kinds of different toxic masculinities running around. You have good ol boys, wannabe cowboys, actual cowboys, bikers, cholos, gansters, hustlers, and evangelicals. I’m not going to touch most of that with a 10 foot pole. At least not directly. I’ll stick to my own point of view as I explore the heart of the matter that bubbles up in all of those different people.

At first I heard toxic masculinity, and as a man, was assuming it was all about me and being a man and masculine in general. I don’t deny people who have been under the boot of the very real white privilege patriarchy. I have guilt knowing that I am an inevitable beneficiary of that system every day in every way, and I know when I need to keep my mouth shut and just not engage. Know one wanted to hear how I felt about the phrase “toxic masculinity” a.

I still privately didn’t get it. I was seeing it as a general feeling that masculinity was inherently toxic. I didn’t like that. We all have some combination of classic masculine and feminine qualities. There is no denying that the sexes have some physical, emotional and their own valid ways of processing things. Not to say of course that individual of either sex can have more or less of one way or another, but masculinity is a thing and it isn’t all bad.

Then one day, I finally got it. Like a flash. Maybe I was reading about ineffectual frustrated white males who aren’t succeeding despite their advantages and lash out violently at the world as a response. I saw toxic masculinity for what it was. Maybe I should have asked more questions instead of backing out of the room trying not to be noticed. But it was apparent to me finally that it wasn’t about me being masculine, it was about frustration at not being gifted with success that men reacted to in violent ways. At least partly. That was at least the aspect that most intrigued me and the one that seemed to be popping up in the news the most with more and more marginalized men engaging in mass shootings.

So that lead me to this piece. We have the flexing skinny white boy wearing the symbol of the toxic frustration he endures like a halo…in his mind the world is doing this to him. He’s a martyr. He is gripping the false idol of male virility, strength and pride. Is he trying to crush it, tear it apart, or is he desperately clinging to it. With his mask he isn’t immune to his poisonous frustration, but he isn’t aware of it.

I’m not sure it’s done and ready to paint/build though. I imagine I need some sort of candles and wall altar treatment as I am wont to do. Let’s see what pops up in my “doing” posts about this piece.

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Why are there no hymns of blame? Why do we hear people thanking God for the happy accidents and praying for his help during avoidable disasters?

I’m not faulting anyone’s need for meaning. I’m not begrudging anyone for wanting there to be a plan behind the workings of the cold random uncaring universe, but just imagine, to be able to drop a devil wherever there is death and an angel wherever there is life. It’s a good gig if you can get it.

I’m not interested in questioning God’s will, his power or his existence (today). I’m questioning the foolish motivations behind the concept of God — the egotistic belief that we deserve a gift giving invisible sky daddy and the shithead externalization of all blame towards the many anthropomorphic boogeymen from which He protects us. Oh the sweet, soothing self delusion of fairytale placebos.

No, I’m not faulting the tendency to want there to be a face behind all the scary things that we don’t understand. I just have to shake my head at any adult who would settle for the ignorant imaginings of a scared pagan explaining away the thunder. Give yourself credit when you can. Accept the blame when you must…but the rest of the time you can just accept that the universe doesn’t give a fuck about you.

So here we see God sheepishly holding up a new house and a happy angel doll as all glory is praised around Him while below, an abandoned devil doll accompanies death and destruction that surely He had nothing to do with. This piece falls in line with my other work where I expose symbols and sacred imagery to the ridicule they deserve when presented in a literal way. I will paint it on my used fence pickets in a graphic style. More advertisement than Holy Icon.

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Since buying the desert camouflage fabric and coming up with the idea for “Apologist Accepted” (right), I’ve been interested in the logical absurdity of the Young Earth creationist knuckleheads. Ignoring the fact that it is evidence-based fact derived from observations and experiments in multiple scientific disciplines that the universe has existed for around 13 billion years, that the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago with life first appearing at least 2.5 billion years ago, they cling to literal interpretations of some bronze age creation myth. The apologists’ blaming fossil evidence on the Devil’s trickery are a source of great amusement as a cynic and consternation as a Humanist.

But making fun of the willfully ignorant is too easy…there is more to be explored. The concept of geological time is tied to so much that exposes any theology as primitive superstition: topics such as Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy, Anthropology and Archeology give a better appreciation of the unique circumstances it took for us to be hear interpreting it all. That is the essence of these pieces, a truer appreciation of our humblingly minute moment in time rather than convincing ourselves we were inevitable or part of some god’s plan.

The tall format of this series and silhouetted subject matter at the top came to me while driving west towards a landfill at sunset. The back lit trucks on top of the layered mound of discarded modern artifacts and shitty diapers were a contrast of beauty and decay, landscape and landfill, timelessness and immediacy. I place the small insignificant human reference atop millions of years of layered history.

The first in the series is to be the gravel quarry inspired by a similar experience with the dump driving outside San Antonio towards the Alamo Cement Company quarry. Other ideas include the landfill, a cemetery, a strip mine, swampland oil rigs, pueblos and fossil beds.

Rock Quarry: – photoshop mockup

The layering of earth, rock and human artifacts isn’t just a conceptual notion, it is a representation of the rich layering of washes, splatters and polyacrylic that make up my paintings. Each convey the passage of time and the human influence within in it. Any allusion to the willful stupidity of New Earth notions is just gravy.

The Support is Ready:

Panel is nailed a glued to 1×2’s, edges sanded smooth in preparation for gluing the fabric base down. I like a hard slick surface to paint on.

The Fabric is Chosen:

More desert camo fabric is found at the third fabric store I try, but it is a heavy cotton blend with a very textured weave. It’ll require more layers of clear coat to make it smooth, but that will only add to the physical depth of the surface. A theme of 50s era Americana develops in the selection of sediment layers. Associations can be made to bygone days of relative innocence, growing prosperity, racism and misogyny.

Layers are Prepared:

How the layers will be arranged is planned. The number of layers I anticipated including is decreased to allow more of each fabric’s pattern to be included. I hope this doesn’t negatively affect the impression of layered time I’m trying to achieve.

Layers are Fixed:

Everything is down. Still layering translucent white bands that separate the bands of fabric. Black drips flowing down add a horizontal element and tie layers together. Black will be built up and will include the silhouette of quarry structures.

All Done:
Take a Look

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