Nudes

2014 • 46.75″ x 17.5″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

(After the portrait of Jonathan Buttall by Thomas Gainsborough)

I loved the way the paintings and sculptures of the boy in the blue suit and the girl in the pink dress had a pop culture name of “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie.” We all remember seeing them in the beds and baths of our friends’ mothers, but none of us remember them having any impression other than an un-articulated feeling about their mothers’ bad taste. Later, when I found out everyone had similar experiences, it was great fun. I always wonder though…who among the people I meet today are the children of such women, or do they themselves have representations of these long dead children in their master bedrooms?

Wikipedia says:

The Blue Boy (c. 1770) is a full-length portrait in oil by Thomas Gainsborough, now in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.[1] Perhaps Gainsborough’s most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall (1752–1805), the son of a wealthy hardware merchant, although this has never been proven. It is a historical costume study as well as a portrait: the youth in his 17th-century apparel is regarded as Gainsborough’s homage to Anthony van Dyck, and in particular is very close to Van Dyck’s portrait of Charles II as a boy.

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2014 • 46.75″ x 17.5″
acrylic, spray paint on used fence pickets

(After the portrait of Sarah Barrett Moulton by Thomas Lawrence)

I loved the way the paintings and sculptures of the boy in the blue suit and the girl in the pink dress had a pop culture name of “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie.” Growing up, I remember seeing them in the sleeping quarters and powder rooms of women of a certain age, but none of us remember them having any impression other than an un-articulated feeling about those women’s poor taste. Later, when I found out everyone had similar experiences, it was great fun discovering just how famous these images were. I always wonder though…who among the people I meet today are the children of such women, or do they themselves have representations of these long dead children in their master bedrooms?

Wikipedia says:

Pinkie is the traditional title for a portrait of 1794 by Thomas Lawrence in the permanent collection of the Huntington Library at San Marino, California where it hangs opposite The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough. The title now given it by the museum is Sarah Barrett Moulton: Pinkie.

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2013 • 48″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel

This piece equates the pretentiousness, hypocrisy, collective denial, and hollow ostentatiousness satirized in the Hans Christian Andersen’s “Emperor’s New Clothes” with the phenomena of “speaking in tongues” in Christian churches. Like the townsfolk in the tale, believers play along with the pretense not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid.

Wikipedia offered some insight into the satire of the classic story, saying it:

…quite clearly rehearses four contemporary controversies: the institution of a meritocratic civil service, the valuation of labor, the expansion of democratic power, and the appraisal of art.

Folk and fairy tale researcher Maria Tatar points out that Robbins indicates the swindling weavers are simply insisting that “the value of their labor be recognized apart from its material embodiment”, and notes that Robbins considers the ability of some in the tale to see the invisible cloth as “a successful enchantment”.

This could be a satire of modern art and consumerism in general. We all tend to suspend disbelief when we begin to accept the artificial worth of objects that have no intrinsic value…much like we have to be taught to appreciate the power of symbolic meaning in general or any specific religious doctrine.

The story and this piece represent a situation where “no one believes, but everyone believes that everyone else believes.”

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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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2011     •     48″ x 18″
acrylic, spray paint, fabric on panel

How is it that patriotic American zealots who get upset at burning flags WEAR so many flags themselves?

The United States Flag Code establishes advisory rules for display and care of the flag of the United States. It is Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the United States Code (4 U.S.C. § 1 et seq). This is a U.S. federal law, but there is no penalty for failure to comply with it. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that punitive enforcement would conflict with the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. – Wikipedia

United States Code:

TITLE 4 — FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES
CHAPTER 1 — THE FLAG

section 8 respect for the flag, paragraph (d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.

(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.

(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.

So let it be noted…Literally wrapping yourself in flag isn’t necessarily a good thing. It is actually disrespectful…and if you do it, your dick might be showing.

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