In memoriam

in memoriam (the unknown military contractor)
suit pockets, brass, bronze, blackening chemicals on canvas
4x5' 2007

This is a work i am wrapping up at the moment. Well, letting it sit anyway... one of its gorgeous features is that it continues to change due to the chemical reaction that is going on (so i keep working on it). I am still mulling the title... haven't settled. It keeps changing like the metal.

I had written awhile back about fragments of memories changing and overlapping. (This work changes as one moves around it, and the light catches it in different places... the photo doesn't do this part justice). The work ties in a lot of the memorial work i've been doing, with a look at current war issues, and reflects some nuance of sorrow and apathy (trendy american sentiments).

In the beginning I was contemplating memorials for military contractors and war profiteers. But i am not a big fan of finger pointing art, or one liners (that take more than one line to make). I do believe however in a one liner that can transcend itself (like a chocolate easter bunny jesus), and that is something i am looking for here. I think that is possible when the personal is evident, when someone participating with the work can feel that coming through (if the chocolate jesus was the typical image of jesus, it would not move past the one liner), and when the work keeps its compassion.

(oh yeah, and this work would be really amazing if it were big, on a really long wall... so if any of you wealthy readers out there have an itch...)

That all being said, i should acknowledge my one year anniversary that passed last week. I have learned quite a bit from this whole blogging experience... the closest thing i ever kept to a regular journal, or even sketchbook for that matter, sad to say. I won't go into it all cept to say this weekly revealing myself to strangers has been, if anything, an excellent exercise in saying, "fuck it." --an essential tool for any artist.

NonProphet then and now, one year later...