PROCESS JOURNAL
Aside from “cohesive” bodies of ‘finished” work, so much of art is about exploring, risking, experimenting. Without this ability to take risks, to fail, to push, to make mistakes, to learn, we artists have little to nothing. The art game needs finished product, but too often these past 30 years have created environments where art is seen far to much as a commodity, and in Amy Sillman’s recent article in the New York Times, she bemoans the current state in which young artists are often too afraid to fail, and yet it is only through failure that true heights can be reached. This online “process journal” gives but a small glimpse into ideas I am pondering.
This page is basically a journal page to show viewers what some of the thought processes are that go into further works. Here again, I am juxtaposing male cultural images, along with bright colors not typically identified as “manly” so as to get the viewer pondering what is going on in this working sketch…
I pull from many sources - found pics, war books, fashion pages, erotic pages, etc etc - all to play with ideas of male cultural stereotyping…
In this working “sketch” above, I am juxtaposing men in simple acts of kissing etc. with that of not only Superman and all that he symbolizes, but black and white images of fighting men in the Vietnam War, some of whom are also in acts of “touching’ one another, but for very different reasons. It appears to me that Superman has an expression of not quite knowing what to make of the situation, and perhaps is even raising a hand attemping to ask questions…
I am interested in the American obsession with football. I played it myself and have so many thoughts about it, both positive and negative. On the positive side, and this may sound odd, but I have never experienced, outside of playing football (and not having been in a war), the experience of the confidence that comes with “strapping on the pads” and heading into battle with your teammates. It is hard to put into words, but is definately a male bonding experience unlike any other sport I played up to and through my college years.
Sunset War
I will often take images from misc wars and do quick drawings or sketches on top of them. This above is actually part of a white flower I placed on top of a soldier.
As a very young boy, perhaps from seeing so many TV new images of what was then the Vietnam War in progress I was so afraid that one day I would perhaps one day die in a horrid war. I think many young boys feel this way, and are quite unsure how to navigate these feelings.
In these current times (2016 - 2020), I think about Abe Lincoln and the tremendous weight that he carried during the Civil War. I ponder what sort of leadership he might provide in todays’ current polarized times? And yet I cross out his face because we are both absent of his type of leadership, as well as much healthy leadership at all.
Maps can be used in so many ways. Borders have been mostly drawn by men. Borders are observed, and yet through time we have seen border lines change and maps thus changing to keep pace. Borders in general seem to be on the forefront of conversation today. I see this white sketch paint that I quickly drew over this map as a way of suggesting this unknown entity sort of engulfing the land.