Binocular Viewpoint Paintings
In stuffed canvases shaped like a binocular’s viewpoint, I paint surreal characters who play out propaganda techniques and warped ideologies from the past and present. The main characters in this series are the Chattering Teeth (based on the 1950s wind up toy of the same name) and their crowned followers. These noise makers are up to no good, misdirecting and fuming nonsense dogma. Humming from their vibrations, they churn inside fields of perceptual color built out of tiny marks of paint that transform into a merged color that is visible only through its optical mixture in our eyeballs. Springing from these fields are plants I redraw from propaganda posters I research where the State has used the beauty of nature to mask their policies of fear and violence. Some of these programs include the Lebensborn program (Germany), Red Scare/McCarthyism (United States), Qanon (United States) and the One-Child policy (China). Flanking the paintings are gouache pennants where the Hammerheads fight back against the plants and figural ceramic vessels that hold up banners. These vessels represent a nation's Standard Bearer who was frequently the most zealot believer since they were unarmed, left only holding a symbol, as they led an army into war.
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Binocular Viewpoint: Grabbing at any kind of divider or meaning-maker
2024
Oil on canvas, textile wrapped archival foam, beads, glazed ceramic, fabric and vintage needlepoint
66 IN x 30 IN x 6 IN