The image above is the latest in a series of images I started in December of 2024. If you have been following along you know the back story, if not here it is in a nutshell. I found a photo I took of my dad, it inspired me to try something. That led to somethinge else. This is where I’m at. There is a thread that connect everything going back to to the start of it all many years go.
Around two years ago, I began exploring a new direction in my artwork that was a departure from what I had been doing and at the same time grounded in themes and styles that have been with me for years, evolving and changing, but still connected in some capacity.
I started working on a series of collages that layered images found in vintage magazines or from thrift shop finds with unrelated objects, typography, patterns, and color blocks. There was an attempt at absurd humor, and a nod to DaDa artist from the early 20th century. I think over the course of one year I made around 60 of them, sometimes all digital, sometimes all analog, occasionally a blend of both.
I was trying to find my way out of some stagnation that had set in, and boredom with what I had been making which were fairly realistic portraits and drawings. Drawings that were technically nice, but didn’t require a whole lot of questioning, or thinking. I kept coming back to a series of lithographs I had done years ago after discovering photo sensitive lithography plates and the ability to layer images using negatives, as well as hand drawn lines and ink washes.
That specific series lead me down the path that I am currently on. Well, sort of.
As I pushed through the collage work, it began to morph into something a bit more developed in terms of the focus on subject matter and relationships to current events, pop culture, and how the world is often presented to us through advertising, and traditional media outlets.
I began using fashion photographs from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, but altering them. I was removing the model from the original background and placing them in a void, a space filled with color, texture and pattern. I was altering them, placing guns and weapons of destruction in their hands and adding in consumer objects around their feet and across the background. For whatever reason I was also adding birds and butterflies to the images as well. There was a play between the feminine form of the model, the masculine weapons of destruction, consumerism, and nature. Did it make sense? Did it work? Maybe. Yet something felt forced, and a bit unfocused or lost. To be honest they simply weren’t working for me. I was swinging for the fences, and missing the ball.
Some of what I was interested in was the absolute absurdity of the poses the models were placed in. The formality of the fashion they were wearing. The idea of the model holding something that was completely out of place or out of character. The juxtaposition of additional objects, and by removing the background, eliminating any reference to the real world.
All of this evolved into the next phase which was a series of paintings and mixed media works that came from an obsession of looking at pulp magazine covers from the mid 20th century. Once again, the absurdity of the titles, headlines, subject matter, and the fact they were the original analog click bait of the time, strategically positioned at the grocery check out or in a magazine rack on your way to the check out line.
My specific obsession was with men’s magazines from the period. Magazines titled “Fate”, “Peril Parade”, “Wildcat Adventures”, “Untamed”. They all had very similar themes. Bikers, Nazis, Communists, Women that were in trouble and needed rescue from burly gun toting men, Men that were in trouble and needed rescue from bikini clad gun toting women, or a group of shirtless men and bikini clad women with guns killing bad guys, usually nazis or communist. Oddly enough the biker themed ones usually have bikers doing bad stuff but being glorified for it.
These magazine covers led to creating mash ups where I was directing the headlines, cutting them apart and creating something more ridiculous than the original. I was pairing these with figures that had been cut apart and reassembled combining men and women to create a somewhat gender neutral figure. All of these were like before being placed into an abstracted background and combined with the magazine titles which were often grouped together to create something new like “The Big Book of Beatnik Wonder Nuggets”.
So a thread was starting to develop. A better more solidified idea was forming but I wasn’t sure what just yet.
While working on these I had a second project that I had been exploring for quite sometime. The way we remember things, how those memories change over time, how those memories are impacted by the world around us, and how the media influences our perceptions of what the world is.
I was working with family photos and found photos and removing specific individuals from the frame. Not eliminating them, but obscuring them as though they no longer existed, but were a faded or fading memory, leaving it up to the viewer to decide the relevance and meaning.
Both of these projects began to converge in 2024 and slowly over the course of the year got me to where I currently am. There is a common thread, and there are obvious carry over items from the work being done two years ago and and today. There is carry over from the lithographs I made more than 30 years ago in art school. There is a theme that seems to be consistent even though it has and continues to evolve.
The current work is a little bit darker. Maybe a reflection of the times we are currently living in. The compositions are a bit more formal and structured. References to art history are a bit more present by giving nods to artists that have influenced my work over the years. Color pallets, line work, washes, use of typography and patterns are all still there. The juxtaposition of elements is still designed so that the viewer questions their relationship. Elements are blurred, obscured, defocused, faded, and distressed to create a specific mood or ambiance. In some but not all of the work there are references to where and when I grew up, but not in the form of nostalgia. Instead maybe a reference to what the “American Dream” was supposed to be at a certain point in time.
The connecting threads are there. There is a connection across all of these and I know they will continue to evolve over time. To be honest though, I have no idea where all of this will be by this time next year or 10 years from now.
