About three years ago, I swore, I wasn’t going to write anymore artist statements. I was fed up with the business of selling art and therefore decided to deny the people the most important thing about any artist: “The Story.”
I had an opportunity to exhibit in a very well known local gallery but, at the time, I felt insulted. It felt like a favor for someone to put my “Pretty Pictures” on their walls. I was a pastelist who thought he was a painter. I wanted people to respect my pastels as a unique way to utilize the medium while making an attractive picture. There was no statement. There was no look over here I have something to say. There was no intrigue. “The Story” was boring. So, in a very selfish way, I was insulted by a particular gallery owner because I did not feel respected. But that wasn t the message at all. The unfinished conversation was…”The Story.” That was something I think the gallery owner knew, that I didn’t, and I wasn’t listening in a way to figure it out. He was right, I was wrong.
Then I quit. I quit showing people my pictures and I started to just pile them up in the basement. One after one, the piles got bigger. I had, for the first time in my life, a successful career outside of the arts and decided I didn’t need to exhibit art any longer like I once did. Then something happened. About two years ago the world began to change. As a young professional in the financial industry, I was standing in a tornado of uncertainty, corruption, pain, greed, etc. I took a new job, moved home, and contacted the one person in the art world I trust. Ralph Hall rescued my artistic career. Ralph has been working with me, as a coach and mentor and manager, for the better part of two years. One day he said to me “You need a purpose.” I had a passion, although wilted at the time, of creating art. My purpose though; it didn’t exist. So, what matters to me? How can I make an impact? How can I make people stop and think? Then it hit me…and I realized I was living the ultimate story and now it is time to share it.
In my professional life there are walls and barriers. There are rules and restrictions. There are things I can’t say; things I’ ll get fired for saying. Every day I help fix peoples investment and insurance problems. Sound familiar? Sound like the perfect storm? Sound like I might have something to tell you? I do! Over the past five years I’ve worked for two top twenty fortune 500 companies. One was a bank company and one is an investment and insurance company. I am proud of my accomplishments and have worked with many great people, but…there is a reason we are where we are. I’m talking about the government, industries, advisors, poor people, rich people and middle class people.
This new work is about the corruption, greed, and suffering of people. My “insiders” opinion of what went wrong and why. This work is also the light at the end of the tunnel. This new work is about us. It’s about People!!!! You and me, the next guy and your employer and the role of government. I intend it to be a direct assault on the cancer that has overtaken even the very innocent and purest of our ideologies. I want to expose the issues through the only voice I have…color. I want people to be bothered. I want people to not like this work and to have a reaction. I’m unique in that I live life everyday hearing both sides of the story and I am willing to document this forever.
Ironically, I am not allowed to make any kind of statement public that may be conceived as investment advice. So, guess what…I cannot tell you what each painting m eans. I cannot tell you how we fix our problems or whether or not these things will get better or worse. But my art can and everyone can hear what they are willing to look for. Each painting is full of symbolism. Each painting is part of a larger conversation and when seen as a group, they will be a unified dialogue.
I am no longer using just pastels. I got bored and cut many of them into little pieces…then painted over them. Ironically, most people can’t tell where the painting stopped and the pastel began.
This will be my greatest social statement and artistic statement.
