Today I finished the next piece for "13 Most Wanted." Based on Andy Warhol's installation at the New York pavilion during the 1964 Worlds Fair, the work features 13 paintings done on printed targets used at a gun range. Where Warhol used actual photographs of the NYPD's most wanted criminals, I am painting the faces of my own most wanted. Politicians, celebrities and even a baptist minister are on the list. It is a tongue and cheek reference to thinning the herd. These are people I feel have done more harm than good to society, much like a criminal. The problem with compiling the list is that it has changed according to the days headlines. Of course there were the ringers for the top 13 from the beginning, but some were added after the piece was underway. During the gulf coast oil spill, Tony Hayward made the list with his infamous "I just want my life back" comment. He joins the other completed panels, Rush Limbaugh and Joe Francis, founder of the Girls Gone Wild video empire.
This is the next piece in the Mexico series, "Walking the Monkey," in progress. The series features paintings on cardboard Corona boxes. I had a show of paintings on found objects in 2006 that had the first Corona painting. I had so many ideas and sketches for that piece it was easy to develop it into an ongoing series. I have always loved painting on found, or reclaimed, objects. The associations that can be played off are endless and the different surfaces offer unique ways of manipulating the paint. Needless to say, cardboard being one of the most challenging.
Finished the last painting of 2011, The American DareDevil. It is the second in a new series that will be exhibited in 2012. The paintings in the series are the people and characters that are often used as the subjects in my work. Evel Knievel has appeared in my paintings since 2004. He is a classic example of an American icon that heavily influenced me as a kid growing up in the 70's.
