Bankrupt

"Pool #1"  oil n canvas

We live in a bankrupt age.  America, victor of the Cold War wallowed in self evident proof of the bankruptcy of communism.  But the confidence of American hegemony was shattered with a morally corrupt war in Iraq.  In the absence of universal ideas of emancipation we had at least the belief in unfettered growth, acquisition, and wealth.  October has caused this belief to implode.  The artifices and the morality that these ideas purported to idealize have fallen into disrepair.  My paintings are derived from history on the way down when optimism is replaced by pessimism  and acknowledged failure.

In the early 1970's David Hockney produced a group of paintings of swimming pools in Southern California.  The pictures were some of the finest icons of the age, brimming with the confidence of a material world.  The paintings have always impressed me for their polished mechanical application of paint, the bright colors, their flatness ... but particularly the symbolism inherent in the pieces.  The pools spoke of enjoyment, liberalism, capitalism, and an age of leisure.

"Pool #2"  etching

The landscapes I have been working on operate on the other end of the ideological continuum.  In a world where ruling ideologies have proven bankrupt my paintings of abandoned, destroyed, and decaying artifices are emblematic of the beginning of this new millennium.  The images mostly derived from photo's taken in Asia tell a tale of materialism overwhelmed by events.  In contrast to shiny slick surfaces, paint runs and dribbles, in the place of clearly diliineated forms the images deconstruct and break apart. Yet they are not traditional landscapes as the obsession with hard lines and mechanical patterns are still very evident of an urbanite.

Is it theoretically possible to show the environment reclaiming man-made objects given that we live in an age of environmental devastation. Can our eco-system really reclaim the ruin visited on it.  If these pantings have any optimism it is that nature will grow through our best attempts to force the wilderness to adapt to us.  The parade grounds are vacant, the pools empty, and the condos with the name of what they covered are being re-absorbed.

"Parade Ground" oil on canvas

"Pool #3" oil on canvas