Since the early 1990s, my work has involved the creation of conceptually based sociopolitical paintings and drawings. At the onset of the war in Iraq, I began a series of small books of drawings that told of our anxieties concerning the mayhem, and corresponding economic impact and religious or political issues presented by the media. One body of work combines drawings with items I have discovered that are relevant to a series. The prints that result from this juxtaposition are then de-constructed further by selectively hand coloring with oil paint. For the first I did a series of mono prints de constructing the hyper patriotism I find so revolting. The second series began during the completion of the first. It has some of the background visuals of the first series, but the thrust is women who use guns. My work addresses gender roles/gender assignment, the fragility of family dynamics, domestic violence, underlying threads of violence and dangers Inherent to American society, as well as clichés. Often times these themes are combined into a series that feature mundane domestic objects corrupted by a general fear permeating our atmosphere. The colors I use exceed the wheel and establish a quality that suggests our need to defeat nature or just anything that our farming culture finds in our way on the brightest and prettiest day of the year. Maybe Easter. Form is corrupted by layers of lines and by strokes of paint woven into the landscape of the work. Events in the world mesh with unrelated events that occurred simultaneously to create an idea that really is a lie.
I usually work on several bodies of work at the same time. Microbes serve as an ongoing theme for a large series in oil on canvas, vector art on museum quality paper and over 80 digital renderings done as artist proofs. My interest takes in the reality of our relationship with microorganisms and on a larger scale, my belief in a high degree of intelligence in all life.
The seven specific bodies of work that I am working on concurrently:
“Tanzanian special needs children”- a series of naturalistic pen renderings. I began the series in 2006 after I returned from Lushoto Tanzania. My experience with the students of Irente Rainbow School was life-altering. I have been In touch with my friends there and have given when I can. A percentage of every sale goes to the school. Soon after returning home one of the men I became friends with was killed by highway robbers. That incident has caused me to stay with black and white for the faces and people renderings. Only recently (Last week) have I gone back to color with that series.
“Patridiot” In 2007, I began this series of over 50 large prints based on the book and guts and veins between their teeth mentality of the people in charge, and the fog that keeps us from seeing the lies. The work does not focus on the soldier or technology as much as our mislead feelings of the war here at home. It is the goal of my work to more fully represent the long nightmare of violence and the pap that shows up as consumer psychosis.
“Girls with guns”- In 2007, I began working with the phenomenon of the female love affair with guns. This series is produced as artist proofs and uses drawings from my books, and imagery of women and handguns, hand grenades, bombs and incarceration. Most of the work has a photorealistic burnt section of the American flag as its background. The women with weapons are rendered in very stark fashion using colors that stay in a pastel range. Some of my drawings are combined with each piece. Sometimes something like
A woman whose head is being pushed into a car hood by a policeman, or a smiling seraphim looking on as the main subject strikes an almost pornographic pose.
Works on Paper- My works on paper tend to differ from my oil paintings and prints. These works are very personal pieces that have been inspired by and made of particular people in my life most of whom are African. Most of the renderings show activities of special needs workers and children as well as daily work.
“bacteriart”- Very colorful vector and photoshop based prints and large oil paintings that investigate the relationship of microbes to mankind. Some of the over 100 renderings are given bright child-like hues to remove any sense of having to have viewed these animals under a microscope. Some are used in another world landscape in which the microbes are really breasts or pizzas or any thing we see around the house. The lighting and coloring suggest both an underwater environment and the landscape of Namibia, Africa.
“Reassembled Flowers”- of various exotic forms are taken apart and reassembled into a new kind of plant life. The work comes from my feeling that anything exotic or different is not easily remembered correctly, and our neurons put imagery together for our memory in strange untruths that we are sure are factual. The inspiration for this series is from the early etchings of wild animals from foreign lands that had very many inaccuracies...to the point of hilarity.
“CowZ”- A take off from the microbe projects as an effort to combine bovine bodies with microbes and myriad of colors. The series is very colorful and fun. Everyone loves cows. Maybe colorful bioengineered cows will be loved too.
My crobes. Understood: everyone is afraid of what they cannot see. Mostly in the form of harmless bacteria. So, what if bacteria were colorful and friendly? Or what if bacteria on a phone looked like colorful phones under the microscope? And, what if the presentation was in a huge format of beautiful shapes and colors that we are not usually exposed to? I don’t know what if…but, I am trying that.
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