Art, Art History and Design, School of
Date of this Version
2009
Abstract
We live in a society that perpetuates, if not celebrates, dysfunctional attitudes. The intention of my work is to point out the follies, hypocrisy, and failings of our society. With my ink drawings, I use a combination of humor and rage to mirror a grotesquely exaggerated reflection of my vexed world view filtered through uncanny and surreal imagery. I am a satirist; I use sarcasm, irony, and expressions of anger to criticize social standards, at times with humor, but always with a certain amount of cynicism. With subjects ranging from artifice, historical and modern sexuality, our obsession with violence, inequality, and political, moral, and religious hypocrisy, I find pleasure in provoking thought via the messages I am communicating. While the topics change from drawing to drawing, the common thread in these works is the sense of terribilita and emotional intensity invoked by scale, the dark tonality of the ink, grim subject matter, and implied violence in the mishandling of the ink. They provoke a visceral reaction to the work through the tension created by implied and realized violence, and speak about social and political decay. There are shared attributes berween my drawings and popular entertainment, including dark comedies and the recent emergence of "slasher porn"-a genre of horror film that revels in graphic depictions of violence to the enjoyment and horror of the audience. Like those films, these works also beg the question, "What attracts so many of us to the macabre?" My film work differs in both approach and tone. While both speak of personal and social dysfunction, significandy more sensitivity is given to my documentary subjects. These are people and not fictional generalizations; they are flawed, broken, and often at odds with themselves. Through their personal stories, they reveal a culture in which a man self-destructs when his true but suppressed homosexuality comes to the surface and how the naturalness of sex and the human body become taboo when it becomes commercialized. They are the product of the dysfunction I talk about in my drawings, only these people are very real. It is the separateness of my drawings and film work and the difference in their methodology that create a symbiotic relationship; the bleak and unforgiving nature of the ink drawings enhances the sensitive temperament of the documentaries and vice versa. My own personal discord: I am as intrigued as I am horrified by the maladjusted attitudes and neuroses within our country while simultaneously in awe of the flawed pieces that collide and intermix to create our societal whole. - 1 We live in a society that perpetuates, if not celebrates, dysfunctional attitudes. The intention of my work is to point out the follies, hypocrisy, and failings of our society. With my ink drawings, I use a combination of humor and rage to mirror a grotesquely exaggerated reflection of my vexed world view filtered through uncanny and surreal imagery. I am a satirist; I use sarcasm, irony, and expressions of anger to criticize social standards, at times with humor, but always with a certain amount of cynicism. With subjects ranging from artifice, historical and modern sexuality, our obsession with violence, inequality, and political, moral, and religious hypocrisy, I find pleasure in provoking thought via the messages I am communicating. While the topics change from drawing to drawing, the common thread in these works is the sense of terribilita and emotional intensity invoked by scale, the dark tonality of the ink, grim subject matter, and implied violence in the mishandling of the ink. They provoke a visceral reaction to the work through the tension created by implied and realized violence, and speak about social and political decay. The process in which these drawings are created relies heavily on the development of the idea. I am a news junkie and spend what little time I am in front of a television watching 24-hour news networks that balance each other in their bias. In many ways, I leech more inspiration from dissenting views than I do with opinions I find more agreeable. It is from these sources that my subject matter begins to gestate. The actual time it takes to render these images is evident in their self-effacing nature: fast line drawings, a painting technique involving quick and sometimes violent sttokes, and the submission of control to the ink. It is these elements that add to the urgent feel of these works. There are also shared attributes between my drawings and popular entertainment, 2 including dark comedies and the recent emergence of "slasher porn"-a genre of horror film that revels in graphic depictions of violence to the enjoyment and horror of the audience. Like those films, these works also beg the question, "What attracts so many of us to the macabre?" My film work differs in both approach and tone. While both speak of personal and social dysfunction, significantly more sensitivity is given to my documentary subjects. These are people and not fictional generalizations; they are flawed, broken, and often at odds wi th themselves. Through their personal stories, they reveal a culture in which a man self-destructs when his true-but suppressed-homosexuality comes to the surface and how the naturalness of sex and the human body become taboo when it becomes commercialized. They are the product of the dysfunction I talk about in my drawings, only these people are very real. It is the separateness of my drawings and film work and the difference in their methodology that create a symbiotic relationship; the bleak and unforgiving nature of the ink drawings enhances the sensitive temperament of the documentaries and vice versa. I can only hope, as an artist, that these works provoke thought and not just an immediate rush to shock and anger. Even if the viewer's reaction is a negative one, it is my intention that they confront why they hold such feelings, even if this moment is fleeting. In both the film work and the drawings where the meaning is more ambiguous, my own position on certain issues become less apparent, leaving the viewer to bring his or her own opinions to the artwork. To believe that I can change another person's attitude or views would be naive; I can only aspire to holding the viewer's attention with these bold visions and messages long enough to spark introspection and dialogue. r In many ways, I am as much a product of our dysfunctional society as the subjects depicted, interviewed, or standing before my work. My own personal discord: I am as intrigued as I am horrified by the maladjusted attirudes and neuroses within our country while simultaneously in awe of the flawed pieces that collide and intermix to create our societal whole.
Comments
Presented to the Faculty of
The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska
In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts
Major: Art
Under the supervision of Professor Ron Bartels