The Past, Present, And Future

I created this painting on the reverse side of a painting I completed in 2008. That painting never really saw the light of day, as it sat in storage soon after its genesis, only to have its stretcher bars removed years later and regress into a rolled-up canvas that was lighter and took up less space. Now transformed once again into a new work of art, with the remains of the past still present but unlikely ever to be seen again. I remember painting that piece and cannot believe it has already been over 12 years ago. Time flies, as the present quickly becomes history.

This painting, titled The Past, Present, And Future, was created in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and completed in December, 2020. The number of Covid infections are increasing at record-breaking rates across the country, each day bringing more infections and hospitalizations than the previous day. As a resident of Los Angeles County, one of the most infected regions of the world, I have no control. And I have no choice but to just let go, allow the powers to play out. The present is bleak and the future uncertain. But there is hope. Effective vaccines have supposedly been invented, and the first wave of distributions have begun. While it remains unclear when the general public may have access to the vaccines, vaccine effectiveness is still questionable.

These are some of things I was thinking about when I created this artwork.

Detail: texture and color

Strings

I don’t always create “creepy” art, but when I do, I am often asked why. The point is not to create something creepy for the sake of being creepy. I don’t think I’m a creepy person, but the world is full of mysteries, ambiguities, psychological wonders, and downright frightful events. Watch any animal documentary, and everything animals need to survive — food, territory, breeding rights — is a battle, rife with creation and destruction. While human society tries to separate from nature, the battles go on within and between us. These battles are not only physical, but also mental and emotional, sometimes illuminated subconsciously through irrational dreams.

Stop-motion animation is the perfect art medium for trying to make sense of the inexplicable with its inherently ominous quality. I wouldn’t call myself an “animator” in the traditional sense, since my work is more of an art piece, where the visuals, metaphors, and combination of music and emotion are more important than a rational storyline and how the characters move. I prefer the choppiness of stop-motion animation, where the puppets move in somewhat broken or disjointed manner, as this adds a layer of complexity, reminding us of our imperfections while also hinting at something unpredictable. And it helps that unpredictability is essential in any kind of filmmaking.

Blending stop-motion animation with live action, this short silent film follows a working woman through an eerie world, where dark manifestations draw metaphors to current events. Click on Videos above or click HERE to watch.

Dude, stop being so serious

With this piece, I turned a doodle into a painting. The purpose was to create something, well, humorous, while also retaining something more than just a punchline. 

I am sometimes annoyed by the overwhelmingly vague and grandiloquent language used by many folks in the art world to legitimize certain artworks. If they can create enough confusion by linking inexhaustible theories to such language in their art of art-writing, using overused words such as juxtapose, banality, and utilize (instead of use), then I suppose many people think they are smart and unquestionably correct. 

Why is the art world so serious? Is it because of the millions of dollars being exchanged by the few financial elite over a handful of contemporary artworks? Does a work of art really need to be valued as though it's a cure for cancer? 

Here's a middle finger. And the art police are chasing. Take the Ball and Run with It. 18" x 24", oil and acrylic on canvas.

Philosophy Of The Eternal And Universal

How to create art that is timeless? I think it must represent the eternal and universal. In my endless mission to create more meaningful work that transcends cultures and borders, I went back to a few philosophers for guidance.   

Although it appears that Arthur Schopenhauer was a cynical sexist asshole, he had some interesting thoughts about art: 

The deliverance of knowledge from servitude to the will, the forgetting of the individual self and its material interest, the elevation of the mind to the will-less contemplation of truth, is the function of art.

A work of art is successful in proportion as it suggests the Platonic Idea, or universal, of the group to which a represented object belongs. The portrait of a man must aim, therefore, not at photographic fidelity, but at exposing, as far as possible, through one figure, some essential or universal quality of man.  

For example, tragedy may take an esthetic value, by delivering us from the strife of the individual will, and enabling us to see our suffering in a larger view. Art alleviates the ills of life by showing us the eternal and universal behind the transitory and the individual. 

The title of this painting is Tell Us Where The World Went. Over the summer of 2017, I camped in and just outside of Yosemite with some friends. I took a photo of them and used it as a reference for this painting. Only a few days after we left, a huge fire broke out and destroyed the area and thousands of acres and homes. The year 2017 is going to prove devastating with regard to wildfires. 

Tell Us Where The World Went, 36.5" x 48", oil and acrylic on canvas over panel, 2017.

Note: The title of this piece comes from a line in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, p. 166.