| Description: The current aesthetic focus of my work is the communication of certain meaning and clear visual language as opposed to vague, uncertain stylization. This visual language necessitates usage of recognizable images, and imagery, derived from figuration, or used symbolically.
Having finished a cycle of religious work, I began to explore the notion that religious imagery and values could in some way have their visual equivalent in contemporary consumer societies' values with popular advertising imagery in a new world of globalized media culture.
Foremost in this work was the use of symbols and imagery, and the use of the model: the imitation of popular medias' use and exploitation of idealized female sexuality. Secondly, the symbols of economic wealth and luxury, leisure time and decadence, power and persuasion as the aspirations of both consumers and creators of media culture, regardless of socio-economic status.
Initially an experiment in the use of visual language, these new works raised questions: What is the pursuit of happiness? What are the politics of desire? What is transcendent in the use of imagery that the popular media exploits?
Painting, Pop, and Catholic iconography meet a reverent Neo-Ex bread slicer in these works. Exploring the visionary processes of art, Western philosophy, and meaning, this figurative work extends the enlightened universal tradition of painting in relation to the human spirit, however broken, fractured, or lost. |
