I create based on influences. I grow and exist in this complex world of influences and note the reoccurring patterns. These patterns can be seen in the marketing and advertising strategies that bombard us daily with new images, products and slogans.
I have been working with these concepts, using images and ideas that come directly from advertising and entertainment. I have focused primarily on outdated print advertisements to exaggerate notions of familiarity that we share with things we feel we might have seen before. I also draw from my childhood comic book collection because it holds the origins of so much that has influenced and shaped my life. The comic book format shares the same basic structure as most advertising, using dynamic color along with bold statements to create a situation to be consumed.
I select and group images together, taking them out of their original context, and give them new meanings based on their relationship with the other images I combine them with. I paint these familiar images so they reference their origins with a cut and paste effect and mimic the printing process from which they came. I layer and reproduce the images to create patterns, thereby exaggerating the ideas that I am trying to show. In using multiple images, I make reference to mass-produced products. The images of men and women that I paint are iconographic in nature, representing themselves as products manufactured by our consumerist society.
The comic book aesthetic is also an important aspect of my paintings. I use the confines of the canvas much like the pages of a comic book. I allow the composition to run out of its boundaries, creating an implied movement. I am primarily concerned with setting up a mood and suggesting a narrative, leaving statements open-ended for the shared culture of mass media and advertising to come up with the conclusions for us.
I am working toward understanding where I have come from and how I relate to others who share many of the same ideas and influences. I question the extent to which we have become products through our own consumption.
I have been working with these concepts, using images and ideas that come directly from advertising and entertainment. I have focused primarily on outdated print advertisements to exaggerate notions of familiarity that we share with things we feel we might have seen before. I also draw from my childhood comic book collection because it holds the origins of so much that has influenced and shaped my life. The comic book format shares the same basic structure as most advertising, using dynamic color along with bold statements to create a situation to be consumed.
I select and group images together, taking them out of their original context, and give them new meanings based on their relationship with the other images I combine them with. I paint these familiar images so they reference their origins with a cut and paste effect and mimic the printing process from which they came. I layer and reproduce the images to create patterns, thereby exaggerating the ideas that I am trying to show. In using multiple images, I make reference to mass-produced products. The images of men and women that I paint are iconographic in nature, representing themselves as products manufactured by our consumerist society.
The comic book aesthetic is also an important aspect of my paintings. I use the confines of the canvas much like the pages of a comic book. I allow the composition to run out of its boundaries, creating an implied movement. I am primarily concerned with setting up a mood and suggesting a narrative, leaving statements open-ended for the shared culture of mass media and advertising to come up with the conclusions for us.
I am working toward understanding where I have come from and how I relate to others who share many of the same ideas and influences. I question the extent to which we have become products through our own consumption.
