The new normal #6 Painting

The portraiture in the body “New Normal” relies heavily on The Mask because surviving the new subjugation of day-to-day life relies on masks. Not for vanity or insecurity, but for self-preservation. The battered majority of Santiago,Chile, is learning to thrive behind masks. It wasn’t mandatory at the start, but it was abundant and becoming less abnormal. It served a benefit affording privacy and concealment from the court-of-martial-law. Now that tear-gas and other “non-lethal” means of police-state oppression have become normal and expected, protection is necessary. For the last year in Santiago, protection and privacy have made masks expected. I have been living sequestered and working the subject matter since the 5 months before the Covid-19 virus impelled the rest of the world to catch-up. It’s hard to say whether hope in dodging a virus is the better optimism than hope in dodging the threat of the police-state, and each of us is left with the same fragile tools to survive either. This confrontation illuminates the ruse. “New Normal” series is a statement of global living as it trends toward wreckage, revolution, and isolation. Modern life is supported by a subject he is well adapted-to and historically successful at manipulating to his benefit. The result cites the illusion of safety and identity, be they lost, found, sought after, or concealed.