"Lov" Painting

ARTIST"S BIO SALES- CONTACT online at The Wolf Gallery, Los Angeles C.J. Wild is a Los Angeles based artist working primarily in acrylic on canvas. His work is a collection of imaginative characters, some are based on real people while others exist only in the cross walks of L.A. or on his canvas. His pieces have a colorful cartoonish quality with a unique, unrefined style, somewhere between pop and lowbrow, decidedly outside. A touch of humor is often found in his works while others exercise the viewers imagination. Through their fictional nature, the artist enjoys the freedom of bending the rules, and allowing the same freedom to the viewer; to see and feel what they wish and interject their own interpretation. "I was trained as a graphic designer, with a high use of tools for tightness and precision. You would probably not guess that, but I tend to like a graphic quality in my work. I try to keep my surfaces flat, somewhat like a simple silkscreen, which looks simple, but can be surprisingly challenging at times. I experiment with a lot of glazing and I can get a nice plastic, toy-like feeling which I'm after. I've been in the art world and there is an intimidation factor and seriousness which I have always struggled with. Knowing and working with so many artists personally, I have often found the people behind the work so much more approachable than some of the work itself. I've found the most dismissive and most playful work collected by the more serious collectors. Newer collectors tend to stay with safe bets, that look serious. I want my pieces to be approachable, and accessible, even if they're not for everybody. I'm not aiming for any museum interest. There is a playful element to my work, and even some of what I consider darker pieces wouldn't look out of place in a child's room. Again I try to capture a toy-like quality, with an almost manufactured plastic feel, like something you would want to pick up and play with. I can be serious about my work, and often spend ten or fourteen hours straight painting, but "serious" is never the first adjective that come's to mind. There is definitively a mental or physchological quality to it. I love Monet for example.. Technically what he was doing was fascinating, but the cerebral element of painting a haystack or a wheat field, moreover contemplating a field or a haystack, as a viewer, seems a bit boring. Maybe it's serene, and that has it's place.