My wife and I were held up at gunpoint back in the winter of 1994. It was very traumatizing for Nancy and me, but we lived to tell the tale, unlike so many other victims of American gun culture.
But still the experience left me feeling profoundly powerless, and precipitated this body of work.
I know artists who are major narrative figure painters. And their vision of humanity is often heroic, noble, and tragic.
My view of humanity, at least as expressed in these paintings, is the opposite. My characters are weak, self serving, and either frightened or violent. My conceptual model for this world view is Tom Stoppard’s amazing play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” which focuses on two minor characters in Hamlet. Unlike the Prince of Denmark, these two guys are clueless grifters, manipulated by others. And yet, they are oddly likable, which I hope is the case for my figures.
7 сен 2024
