fig. 1
A Second Time Around
As a literal and symbolic sister image to “Revisionist History” this addressed the concept of lies by taking a work I did years before “Jane Get Me Off This Thing” and attempted to “re-tell” it visually with the idea that the second time around stories can expand, the fish gets larger, the hero more epic, the lie more broad. So lets take a enigmatic portrait and make it as mythic as a Greek goddess or a X-Men comic crossover.
fig. 2
Scale & Orbit
I always loved NASA having grown up a stones throw from LBJ Space Center and made a series of paintings exploring the textures of planets but what really makes space is the cosmic scale. Something so large that you can’t take it all in that has the smallest most delicate object slowly moving by in transit. As with a glow of light across a cheek.
fig. 3
Patience & Stillness
One of my favorite aspects of the portrait is the clasped hands, there is an element of reverence, patience and statuesque strength in it. Like a delicate stone outcropping that looks delicately carved until you realize its been there for a millennium. Again adding to the sense of scale both space and time.
fig. 4
Subtext of Beauty & Vanity
Subtly adding the constellation Cassiopeia I wanted to add context for fans of Greek myths and Astronomy a nod to Queen Cassiopeia with the absolute beauty of the subject, and a vain glimpse in the expression. Simultaneously reference the galaxy Andromeda which is named after Queen Cassiopeia’s daughter and what I based the color scheme on for the work.
fig. 5
Hubble of the Artworld
I worked in the Art Fair & Gallery world and watched closeup many things but at times felt like I was watching it from afar almost in a nature documentary or Hubble telescope fashion. Beautiful and ugly, noble and sordid, elegant and clunky. Always fascinating but annoyingly akratic.
fig. 6
In Summary
The Artworld is a galaxy of stars where truth is large, beautiful and paper thin. I wanted a work that celebrated that but acknowledged how in that scale we can lose the truth. Just as I have destroyed the original “Jane Get Me Off This Thing” and all that survives is this, I hope works like these once created remind me of the value of real truth no mater how small, uninteresting and ungratifying it may be. Big loud moments can be fun but little quiet ones are priceless.