Girl on Boubon who made me think (2012)
Oil on Canvas
150 x 200cm
Why did you choose to paint this image for New Orleans? It's very bold in its nature.
For me New Orleans was a city that came alive at night; the live music, the bars, and just the craziness to it all. There is an undercurrent of raw sexuality in that city, more so than Las Vegas which is a manufactured way to promote sexual imagery, and that is what I wanted to depict. When you look at my journal excerpt for New Orleans you may find the passage with my altercation with a shot girl in one of the many bars at Bourbon Street, the main hub for parties and drunken debauchery. Long story short: the shot girl threw 2 shots down my throat without my permission, then went on to grab my crotch and ask if I was single, and why I was single. The next day I thought about that moment because up to that point, at 22 years old, I had never been on a single date let alone even flirting with the idea of having a girlfriend. She was the person to make me think about why this was the case.
Why five canvases? Where did you get this idea from and what did you expect the audience would get out of it?
For me, by painting over multiple canvases, is both conceptual in relation to the American Aesthetic series while providing a unique visual experience. Having studied American culture at University and travelled around the U.S. a strong sense of urbanity was a key theme, and what all cities in the U.S. have in common is the grid urban planning of its streets and regular shapes of their buildings. I wanted to have this reflected by using it as a tool to compose my paintings, and showcase my idea of what an American aesthetic is.
As a visual experience for the audience the composition is born from the canvas themselves, the frames and how they are aligned. I wanted to capture the essence of one my favourite artists, Chuck Close, and have the viewer explore the painting like a journey. The sense of scale was a must for this piece. For each canvas I threw away the palette to use as colour reference and turned away the one I completed before hand, one canvas at a time. I wanted to project an idea of human error though distorted colours (hence the differing tones of greens because I obviously forgot the ratio between blue and yellow) and where lines would sometimes not align over connecting canvases. I can't say why I chose five canvases the composition design was a natural progress of exploration looking at different looks and streamlining drawings to display a vision I wanted tell.
The latter day shedule of Extreme Obesity (2013)
Oil on canvas
120 x 94cm
Why did you pick something so obvious, the topic of obesity, for a Texas state city?
There is a reason why stereotypes exists and that's because for the whole they are true. I have to say that during my two days in Dallas I can honestly say that I forgot Texas was the state with one of the worst obesity rate problems. There was an abundance of homeless folks, second to Frisco by my assumption, a good sense of culture with a surprisingly expansive Natural History Museum and the site where JFK was assassinated, and of couse the cowboys. But ultimately I have to say that Dallas was overall a bland and boring city compared to others in the U.S. It was only when I was leaving Dallas on the Greyhound bus, on my way to Las Vegas, did I get a vivid reminder of extreme obesity in Texas when eleven passengers of that discription came on board. It was honestly frightening due to the fact that these persons have families and it became a lasting image within my impression of Dallas. I referenced the 'latter schedule' in the title because of the late evening bus journey I took.
This burger actually looks quite tasty.
Well believe me that was the opposite effect that I was looking for when I first picked this image for my painting. In highlighting what is a problem within contemporary American society I searched for the most ugliest and depressing looking hamburger I could find. Then I came across an article called Lubbock, Dallas Among the Top Eight Artery-Clogged Cities and found the burger I was looking for (Click here to view). Comparing the image with the final painting, the difference in colours - less saturated, more vivid - is just a representation of my style to embrace colours and make things stand out in this way. All my work is based on this fact and in the end its about making things bigger much like what America is.
General Audiences - all ages admitted (2013)
Oil on canvas
142 x 102cm
Why is the title based on movie audiences censorship?
Las Vegas is a crazy place, as many people would rightly assume, the sense of excess and the use of sexual imagery as a commercial commodity along with its history as mecca for gambling in the United States. There is nothing wrong about it and it is as it has been when it Bugsy Siegel opened the first of the mainstream casinos ran by the mob: a place for complete escapism and to feed the senses.
However, while I was there one thing stuck in my head. A casino floor with women pole dancing in bikinis in front of rows of Black Jack card tables and within the crowds of gamblers and drunken tourists there were children running around playfully and being strolled around in prams. This is a result of a recent shift in Las Vegas' marketing to appeal to the masses as a 'family' holiday destination and for me I thought it was a mess. If you can afford expensive hotels, and flights to Las Vegas you can surely afford to pay for a baby sitter to look after kids when you go to Las Vegas. There were things going on that children really ought not to be seeing at a young age.
This is why I wanted to paint a beautiful show girl standing outside her environment, in the streets, rather than on stage strutting her stuff. The fact that she is counting how many dollars in her hand added to sense of commodity that Las Vegas represents. The title reflects the fact that in Las Vegas, her, gambling, drunken debauchery and others are all available to be viewed by general audiences no matter the age.
Did you not enjoy Las Vegas?
On my Greyhound trip, actually no I didn't and I found it quite boring and bland. However that's only because I went there literally just over a month before hand for my 22nd birthday celebration. Now that was fun and it was great to go there with so many of my friends during the my time studying in the University of Miami. I wouldn't say what happened there as they always say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But my second visit was more like one night stay before spending time with two friends at the Grand Canyon for Christmas. Now that was special.
As a destination Las Vegas is actually a fascinating city with its own brand of architecture called Architainment coined by academics about the subject. However I did my own paper (American studies was my university degree) on Las Vegas architecture as a whole and sought to find an overall link between the casino hotels of the Strip and residential areas. For me it was the concept of what I coined as self-contained architecture. It is the aim of the casino hotels with all the shopping malls, restaurants, swimming pools, and bars to keep the public inside and spend, spend, spend. The same goes for the residential compounds that are big in scope, each having their own gated communities and amenities. Overall Las Vegas is just a great example of marketing and finding ways for tourists to spend as much of their money as possible.
Absent Generation (2013)
Oil on canvas
iPhone 4S
This is definitely different from your usual work. Let's start with learning about this image
Well as you can see from the title I am trying to evoke the idea of youth culture in America but also on a much simpler level it was the underwhelming experience I had in Los Angeles. Basically I thought it was s***. Granted I didn't give the city the best of chances on my visit, only gave it one day in my tight schedule as I travelled around the U.S., but that day was spent around Hollywood Boulevard (click here to read more). For me it was tackiest environment, very run down - a surprising lack of maintenance - and fitted the idea of L.A. being this superficial city that lacks substance. This picture, of two young men, essentially 'hanging' around the place, the sense of boredem - with one sitting down starting at the viewer while the other playfully poses underneath a beach structure - perfectly illustrated the sense I got from Los Angeles. It also represents a contemporary youth culture in America that is set in a time of uncertainty with recent economic depressions that is now shaping the way a generation are seeing their future.
Ok, now why the phone and why the step away from the canvas?
This art piece evolved quite naturally from the original idea I had, in a way that made it perfect sense to display it on an iPhone. Firstly it's the painting itself I wanted to do something on a small canvas because I felt for a city like Los Angeles that it only deserved the attention of a small painting. This is by no means an easy feat, and it was a challenge to reach the same level of painting ability on such a small scale; for instance the face of the gentleman in the picture is smaller than my thumb. Then I thought of the youth culture in America and how the clamor for the latest smart phone item is a trend that is not just contained the United States: another example of American globalization in popular culture.
The iPhone is far and away the most widely found item that you can have in your pockets or purse. An iconic example of product design from California. In using this item I also wanted to comment on how we are alll guilty now of staying glued to the phone checking emails, texting, using Whatsapp, uploading photos to Instagram, to the point that we sometimes ignore the people around us and are in our company. As an item that is now popular in everyday life this artwork reflects how one item has come to dominate how a person may interact with the world.
