Artist Statement
I have been painting a series of works that is based upon, to some extent, a Marshall McCluhan statement the “the media is the message”. The media has changed the way we see our world and ourselves. Just as Caravaggio painted under the influence of his world, namely, “the church”, so I am painting our view of how we live, love and desire as influenced by “the media”.
Our lives are no longer the serene introverted images that Vermeer painted. We are accosted by thousands of images from every source, the ability to separate reality from the false view has ripped this reality into discordant views formed by extremes that we are subjected to incessantly.
My paintings record this discord by showing what the media strives to influence, that is, their ability to control what we see, think and act upon. The ripped papers, in my paintings, signify how fragmented these images are and how they attack up on every level. We can no longer look in the mirror or at a friend or lover without this unreal comparison.
In essence I am a historian of our times, much as artists have been in the past. I see the influence of the media in all aspects of our lives, and I strive to reflect this in my paintings.
I would like to note that the origin of my paintings is a paper collage that I construct from different layers of papers, my own drawings, and images obtained from the media, magazines, newspapers, etc. The image of the collage is then painted on canvas with oil. I use the classical technique of generating an underpainting first, and then completing the final painting.
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