Done – Page 4 – High End Low Brow Pop Art

Our Lady of the Lawn (1): Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Our Lady of the Lawn (3): Revisited Obsession

Dick Van der Wurst on September 24, 2013

2016 • 26″ x 20″
acrylic, spray paint, used fence pickets

Bathtub Mary, also known as Mary on the half shell is a simulated lawn grotto framing a small statue of the Virgin Mary and less often, other Roman Catholic figures.

Wikipedia says:

While often constructed by upending an old bathtub and burying one end, similar designs have been factory produced.

Bathtub Madonnas are also a common sight in north-central Kentucky and southern Indiana [where I spent a vast majority of my years on earth]…an area that has historically been predominately Catholic. A drive down country roads…will provide ample sightings of these small shrines.

This is a theme that is very rich for me. Not only as a recovering Catholic but because of its association with the archetypal “virgin.” Jung’s ideas on the subject helped with the recognition of my propensity to project. The discovery and recognition of the negative effects this subconscious power can have was a big part in causing me to want to confront the power of Symbols in my work and in my life.

Below you can see older, less successful attempts to do this idea justice as I was finding my visual voice. Lady (1) was a during a time when I thought my use of materials could support my half assed illustration style. It wasn’t until later that I’d be better suited to mixing realistic elements with (better) illustration (see: Lesser of Two Evils).

Lady (2) was even worse for different reasons. I was determined to include text in the pieces as a more prominent element. Mary in a bathtub screams for a vertical support. I think I may have tried this horizontal as a challenge.

I failed.

The thing sucks for too many other reasons to list but it did get me closer to the success you saw above. This is why you take a step back after you finish a piece and evaluate your success and failures. Most importantly watch and listen to how people react to things. If you believe in the basic idea, you can eventually make your way to a piece that is worthy of the brilliant concept behind it.

Lady of the Lawn (2): Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane — Our Lady of the Lawn (2): 33″ x 40″ 2013

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Factory Farm Aid and Flying Monkeys: Secrets of the Wonderful Wizard

Dick Van der Wurst on September 22, 2013

2013 • 53″ x 35.5″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

I made this for a show celebrating the release of that awful new Wizard of Oz movie in the spring of 2013.

I love starting with a theme. In this case I researched the meanings and symbols in the original movie and the books it was based off of. Very much an allegory for the plight of farmers and factory workers, I starting thinking about all the reforms and subsidies that were put in place to ease the uncertainty of markets for Americas farmers and how over time they have been taken advantage of my larger and larger corporate factory farms.

Symbols and associations aren’t always “this equals that” in the mind of a writer or other creative person, but reading about these interpretations led me to my own associations about the book, the movie, their symbols and how people see the subjects they represent.

This A Monetary Reformer’s Brief Symbol Glossary was interesting:

Interpretations vary, particularly on the lesser figures, but this will give the readers good reference points to begin their consideration of the matter. Was the symbolism consciously or subconsciously employed? We cannot know with certainty, nor does it really matter. What matters is that Baum understood the issues involved and employed them in Oz. Millions of Americans have seen Oz, generally several times. Knowingly or not, Oz has given us a key to understanding the solutions to the economic issues we face in our time if we could only accept that we have had the power to regain our bank-mortgaged homes all along.

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Cigars and Sexual Awakening: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Cigars and Sexual Awakening: Shrewd Puberty Metaphor

Dick Van der Wurst on February 21, 2013

2013 • 28″ x 38″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

Wikipedia told me:

Red Riding Hood has also been seen as a parable of sexual maturity. In this interpretation, the red cloak symbolizes the blood of menstruation,[27] braving the “dark forest” of womanhood…the wolf threatens the girl’s virginity. The anthropomorphic wolf symbolizes a man, who could be a lover, seducer or sexual predator.

Now all of this talk is rather Freudian, but we all know Freud said that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”…probably because he liked to smoke them. Now if the wolf is dragging the girl into womanhood and the woodsman is reaping the benefits, then they both have an interest in her “taking up smoking.”

A few people have recognized the composition of this piece as being a cigar box. Leaving the wood behind the figures unpainted highlights the sign-like quality.

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Acrimony and Cheese: Delivering Powerful “Fuck You” To Expectations

Dick Van der Wurst on February 20, 2013

2013 • 45″ x 31.5″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

As humans, we mask our existential angst and despair with any number of diversions and pleasurable sensory experiences…foremost among these is melted processed cheese product. This housewife’s acrimony can’t be masked as she readies to light another cigarette (a great way to hasten the death we all fear) after extinguishing the last in the party food, boldly giving a literal and figurative “Fuck You!” to whomever doesn’t like it.

The used fence pickets lend a feeling of age with the warped, knot filled support becoming part of the content of the piece, helping to evoke the bygone era represented in the woman’s clothing and the mid century chrome formica dining kitchen table. Despite the presence of the delicious cheese, she isn’t about to maintain the demure facade of the good housewife any longer.

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Paisley Muertos Chair: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Paisley Muertos Chair: Pop A Squat On Beautiful Art

Dick Van der Wurst on November 28, 2012

2012 • 32″ x 15″ x 15″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on wood

I was asked to submit work to a functional art show in Houston in November, 2012. I had never done any such thing. I’m not big on “surface decorating” so it was a big creative exercise for me to make my type of art work on a random “functional object.”

A trip to one of many local Goodwill stores had me dragging home any wooden thing with a flat surface that would take paint. I found this basic wooden chair and figured the seat would be a great place to try out the latest in my “Paisley Muertos” series…since I’ve sold out of all the older ones.

I had to take the back off which was a challenge to do without breaking anything. Then I sanded and glued down the fabric to the seat very carefully. Worked out great. I painted the seat and the back separately and put it all back together at the end. Worked out pretty well. I’m going to hit Goodwill again and find more stuff to paint on. I think stuff like this will be a great addition to a show of my paintings.

Room for improvement lies in the fact that I did not address the type of chair I was using when deciding on imagery. I’ll need to keep that in mind in the future. I suppose the images of decorated death on an innocent child’s desk chair is startling but isn’t really addressed directly by me here. Hmmmm….

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7 Years Bad Luck: Relativist Pop Art by Moe Profane

7 Years Bad Luck: Surprise Associations Arrive When You’re Looking

Dick Van der Wurst on November 27, 2012

2012 • 3.5″ x 15.5″ x 3.5″
acrylic, spray paint, mirror on wood

A trip to one of many local Goodwill stores had me dragging home any wooden thing with a flat surface that would take paint. I found this $10 chunk of walnut into which 7 holes were cut to hold candles. I meditated and wikipedia’ed on the number 7 for a while, thinking of how to incorporate its significance into the piece somehow.

“7 years bad luck” occurred to me at some point. Other things were also considered for a while until the idea of incorporating a broken mirror popped into my head. BAM! I found this one at the store that was exactly the right size. Art miracles can happen.

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A Breakfast of Eggs and Absinthe: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

A Breakfast of Eggs and Absinthe: Simple Pleasures

Dick Van der Wurst on October 22, 2012

2012 • 42″ x 24.75″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

This was created for submission to the 2012 Huevos Rancheros jurored silent art auction. I had a while back found and noted a great(?) morning after, hair of the dog type drink: egg whites and absinthe. The idea was to use eggs in a vintage graphic sign type design on old fence pickets, incorporating themes from those wonderful Victorian absinthe lithograph posters.

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Self Doubt and Sauerkraut: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Self Doubt and Sauerkraut: An Unusual Perspective

Dick Van der Wurst on October 22, 2012

2012 • 52.5″ x 35″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

We’ve all heard about combining food with other pleasurable sensory experiences like cheese and art shows, prime rib and strippers, sex and pastrami, so why not combine delicious food with a debilitating existential crisis?

Self doubt and sauerkraut obviously came together because of the rhyme, but the feelings of doubt that could be induced by the sight and odor of the strange and exotic are what is highlighted in this piece. The cautious angel is repulsed, the devil is ready to try anything, and the cat in the lederhosen is caught between belief and disbelief. Uncertainty, distrust, lack of sureness petrify him.

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Sedimentary – Rock Quarry: For A Great (Geological) Time, Call Moe

Dick Van der Wurst on October 21, 2012

2012 • 48″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel

I’ve been interested in the logical absurdity of the Young Earth creationist knuckleheads for a while, 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 an inevitable 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, this gravel quarry was inspired by a drive outside San Antonio towards the Alamo Cement Company quarry.

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Ennui Au Jus: Relativist Pop Art Painting by Moe Profane

Ennui Au Jus: Boredom Of A Lifetime

Dick Van der Wurst on October 19, 2012

2012 • 46.5″ x 27.5″
acrylic, spray paint on recycled fence pickets

We’ve all heard about combining food with other pleasurable sensory experiences like cheese and art shows, prime rib and strippers, sex and pastrami, well we also combine delicious food with our debilitating existential crises.

I found a picture of the most bored person I could, put a chef’s hat on him and was off and running. Like Sauerkraut and Absinthe before it, this piece tries to be flat and graphic and distressed hearkening back to the days sings were hand painted on whatever wood could be found.

The text, the existential crisis, the food the materials all come together to highlight how good food and parties serve only to mask the angst that makes them so necessary for us to get through the ever changing seasons of life.