Lost Arrangements
Non-picture based paintings made at SAIC. These paintings are missing, sold, or destroyed.
“Helen” latex house paint, chalk, crayon, (2014).
Helen was the second to last painting I made with any seriousness at SAIC. I wanted to take all of my formal preoccupations, motifs, experiments, and make a going away piece, which, of course, I decided must be monumental in scale. The exact dimensions are unknown. The sigil of the Astronomicon can be seen in the bottom left.
“Panama” latex on raw canvas, (2014).
One of the simple, colorful, pleasant, ocean-themed paintings I made following my fallout from the Astronomicon.
The Tethers
The Tethers were a series of four paintings made for a house art show in Chicago in 2013. Each were constructed with black latex house paint, dental floss, Play-doh, blood, and outward facing staples (to make the handling inherently violent). The stellar motif I had been fascinated with came to a head in this series. Only one of the paintings was constructed solidly, the smallest of the group. It currently resides in a good friend’s home. The others were deconstructed, their canvas and stretcher bars recycled.
The works were designed to capture a somewhat unconscious and very abstract sensation I had been entertaining, which I can’t really describe. Some thread-thin idea about hanging on to my morality, or my relation to other humans beings. There was a lot of artist drama going on in our social circle. Paintings were being stolen, held for ransom, reworked, and returned in ruined shape. A lot of us were desperate to “breakthrough” in our art. To do something radical to change the whole medium.