High End Low Brow Pop Art
2010 • 11″ x 16″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
The fish pattern in the fabric reminded me of Jesus, of course. He send an apostle fishing so that he may pull what he owed in taxes out of a fishes mouth. No word of if the coin turned up heads or tails, but if you’re convinced you’re righteous you can never lose.
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2009 • 48″ x 48″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
We see here, early in the morning of Ash Wednesday, the aftermath following the Fat Tuesday debauchery. A Christ figure is passed out on the New Orleans riverfront with both the unapologetic party animal and the rationalizing church-goer in similar states of disrepair.
This started with an invitation to make a piece or two for a New Orleans themed fundraiser at The Louisville Visual Arts Association (LVAA) Water Tower.
The idea put a man draped on a Riverwalk park bench like he’s been crucified, sleeping off the Marti Gras fun early into the next morning. An angel prays a devil nurses hang over above his head, each with beads AND ashes smudged on their heads. At his feet aren’t the same lamenting saints Jesus often is seen with. Instead, he is flanked by two fellow partiers sleeping off their binges.
It turned out a bit different but the best paintings always do.
This is supposed to remind one of the oft forgotten hypocrisy of the Mardi Gras celebration. Like most Christian traditions, it has its roots in paganism. Ancient Greek and Roman festivals involved sacrifice drunkenness and much of the fun stuff we associate with Mardi Gras. There were parades where images of gods are worshiped above the assembly. Pagan priests in the parade shower the crowds with spring flowers, herbs, grain and coins.
That what one would think would be apposed to Christian thought is now accepted as a blend of pagan rites, animism and religion. In an attempt to convert the masses the Catholic church, fixed Easter to the full moon of the spring equinox allowing the non-scriptural traditions of Lent and ash Wednesday to follow Mardi Gras. In a brilliant PR move, the early Church absorbed many of these festivals in hopes that it would convert the pagans.
My point isn’t to judge the hypocrisy of course, but to have fun with how little people actually understand their religion. They aren’t necessary hypocrites but ignorant fools slave to their instincts and animal desires as any heathen, but too self righteous in their so called “faith” to acknowledge it.
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2008 • 48″ x 48″
acrylic, spray paint, paper on panel
The traditional New Orleans “Cities of the Dead” look across to a more modern version, the Katrina houses. Mirrored in the facades are the O’s and X’s with different if not equally mystical meanings.
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2010 • 30″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
Half empty, half full, who cares. No one is right. No one is wrong. The taps are dry. Let’s go home.
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2009 • 24″ x 12″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
Deeply layered and textured to evoke time and age, this work deals with the notion of ignoring evidence and coming up with other impossible if not more comforting conclusions.
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2008 • 24″ x 12″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
The discussion of such topics tend not to go well. Here you see me pulling the angel and devil out into a space of their own coming to the same conclusions so many other have had discussing issues of morality.
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2009 • 30″ x 12″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
This piece was born with Moe Profane. During a long creative drought brought on by circumstance, otherwise directed energy and lack of studio space wasn’t without it’s share of good. I spent that time working through ideas and processes strictly theoretically, weighing their conceptual merits and how the process would be as much a part of the idea as the image.
My creative impulse bubbled beneath the surface at varying degrees for years until finally a space to create became available the same time an idea to create an image of uncompromisingly obvious masculinity.
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