Here is a glimpse of my latest print. I’m participating in an awesome portfolio exchange, organized by my friend Curtis Readel, based upon the Misfits’ song ‘Hatebreeders’. Unfortunately, the edition size is 60 and I decided to do a double-sided print; I always like to make things complicated. Here are a few peeks at the different stages of this 15 run screen-print:
Edition of 60 stacking up...
Halftone layers
My personal homage to Alkhem.
What good is a savior if he can't be used as a platform for a satirical reproach to the manufactured commercialization of ancient renewal celebrations?
Today I was inspired (possibly by the will of God) to create this wonderfully ‘easter-ish’ image. This holiday has always perplexed me. Sure, if you enjoy sitting in rows of uncomfortable benches you’ll probably receive the good message of the biblical resurrection, others will probably enjoy the company of family, and hopefully everyone will take a moment to contemplate the symbolism of spring, but what’s with all this bunny and candy egg crap? I know, I know, they’re symbols of fertility and birth – so what’s the implication behind eating them!?
One of my earliest memories is of looking out my living room window to see a giant pink rabbit hopping sluggishly down the street (I still feel sorry for the poor sap inside that suit sweeting his balls off under the sweltering midday sun), and because of that I always associated easter with bunnies and eggs (oh, and the resurrection of Christ – I grew up in Christian middle class America). It was only after I began my quest to find freedom of thought; looking under the rocks of what I’d been taught I was able to see easter as something much more meaningful than a dead guy coming back to life, eating egg-shaped candy in bright colors, and fabricated obligations.
People often complain about Valentines day being a manufactured holiday and refuse to participate, but to me Easter is far more irksome. Not only is it a commercialized holiday getting us to pay money for unhealthy crap, but it also represents the usurpation of something much more grounded and meaningful. The symbolism of fertility and spring growth; renewal after the death of winter, should serve as inspiration for self improvement and hope for the future. As above, so below.
I’ll leave with one last thing on this decidedly Christian holiday and let you decide what it means to you:
Gerald L. Berry, author of “Religions of the World,” wrote:
“About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill …Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.“
Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians:
“… used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation.”
Has it ever occurred to you that there may be a mysterious force ready to guide your life and bathe you in protective all-loving peppermint?
Never trust a fArtist
This is the perfect tool for all those hormone-ing adolescents trying to work the Christian angle into some panties. Now I wonder, who used this trick on the ‘blessed virgin Mary’?
Here is my latest piece of work. It is quite a change of pace from my other stuff (which has, if nothing else, been cathartic to produce; post grad-school blues are not fun) and I can’t say everyone would like this hanging on their wall, but surely it can find a deserving home. All you have to do to win this pile of awesome is tell me what is represented in the top right of this image [Hint: the fly-like thing; which has been referenced by Jesus himself {according to the guy who wrote Matthew}, John Milton, and Francis Barrett, only to name a few].
*Contest is over. Congratulations to Drew for being the lucky winner!
The Answer: Beelzebub
…draw a picture:
It’ll make you feel better. Happy Holidays!
Looking back through one of my notebooks (which I try not to do habitually), I stumbled upon this little doodle. If you’ve visited my portfolio page, you’ll surely see the origin of that body of work within this sketch. I can’t say this sketch resulted in the conscious effort of that final, solidified work – but it surely held a strong subconscious influence as that work came into fruition. Funny how old ideas show up later in a more or less altered state; and that my friends is why I love looking back through my notebooks only periodically. It’s fun to see how seemingly forgotten ideas have clung to the fragile trailings of the subconscious.
The similarity to "Trapped" is striking, especially the odd angle of this poor sap's noggin.
Highly Addictive Perception Filter
I was cruising that bastion of procrastinator entertainment, enjoying various humorous images, when I found this delightful little snapshot. I can only speculate about the setting of this jarring oversight by the city works organization, but regardless of its mystery I find it every bit enjoyable as if it were on my neighborhood block; driving by it everyday on my way to work and chuckling to myself. I wonder if someone, that was particularly irked at work, decided to cheer themselves up by committing a ‘slight’ oversight in naming a particular street. I wonder if they went home feeling a little better about the monotony of their rewardless job, knowing that they had demonstrated a finite example of power. Entertaining this fantasy further, I’d like to imagine that very same person driving by this debacle in situ, smiling wryly to themselves knowing that their micro-rebellion played a part in erecting this nuanced iconoclasm.
Opiate for the Masses (although meth is not an opiate, hopefully you catch my drift)
Thinking of the documentary Jesus Camp, I worry for the children that get so deeply hooked on such an intense ideology. Seems to me they are walking a very fine tight rope. It’s not difficult to foresee various psychological and spiritual traumas arising when these children experience the curve balls that longevity inevitably throws at the living. Such a rigid doctrine of belief leaves little wiggle room to accept and process countless things in this world. Things that are more and more unavoidable as the interconnectedness of society increases. They either struggle with reconciling the differences between what they’ve been taught and what they experience or reach a dead end and close their minds to a wider perspective. Now obviously I’m projecting a lot into this ironic little image; I’m sure this is a scenic road to a very nice Methodist Church Camp that helps kiddos learn to experience nature and social camaraderie, etc. However, it does provide pause to think about the potentially negative effect our projected ideals have upon the supple minds of children. Rather than enforcers, lets be guides to support and strengthen their own ideological development because it’s surely not ‘one-size-fits-all’.
…and i’m not sure how this post got to here from where it started (I should curb my meth use)… Cheerio!
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