Life & Death Disaster #03 - original painting on 300gsm Italian paper Painting by Taylor Smith

Painting: Oil, Enamel, Screenprinting on Paper.

Life & Death Disaster #03 is a 22” x 30” original painting on paper and is part of my "Luxurious Disaster: A 21st Century Tale of Love, Fame & Tragedy" series of pop artworks. This painting is a dark homage to the breakdown of the American Dream. Life, death, addiction, overmedication, happiness, memory and our own very dreams are represented in this series of conscious paintings. I have created a loosely connected group of artworks which take as their subjects vintage advertising images, references to mid-century pop artists, prescription drugs, the Pharma industry, flowers, 20th Century Americana, the human body, consumer products and fashion luxury brands, politics and the concept of failing technology through pixel-glitched computer data corruption.

These original hand-painted and silkscreened, unique one-of-a-kind artworks appropriate source material from iconic artists such as Christopher Wool and Damien Hirst, social media, pop culture, art history, 19th century medical text book anatomy etchings and the local shopping mall. I use oil paint, enamel and screen printing as a means to fix my images on Fabriano Premium 300gsm heavy Italian cotton paper which is mould-made and acid free, guaranteeing extremely long conservation over time. These works are a critical take on the haves versus the have-nots while maintaining a sense of humor. I am attempting to fuse separate worlds together — the explosive and visual power of wealth, fashion and money juxtaposed against the realities of life and death. The result? Hopefully art that takes collectors to new and sometimes nostalgic and introspective places.