High End Low Brow Pop Art
2011 • 20″ x 12″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
What happens when we dress up the lesser of two evils with the trappings of goodness? Nothing. It is still essentially evil and it makes the angels sad.
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2011 • 36″ x 24″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
Woman’s role in the fall of man has long set the tone for her role in the patriarchal Abrahamic religions. The apple martini being poured by Eve’s good and bad consciences put power, and responsibility, back in Eve’s hands as the snake, the mythical embodiment of the forked tongue trickster who so easily manipulated poor Eve into ruining man’s place in paradise, no longer has a role in anything.
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2010 • 22″ x 12″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel
Everyone has their own personal religious notions and are able to contort their morals, rationalizing their good and bad actions while harshly judging those of others. It is really about alleviating guilt, lack of empathy and a lack of impulse control. Jesus loves me no matter what but he judges the shit our of your twisted ass.
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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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