"This Is Not A Gun" Painting

Confronting death, gun violence, wealth, opulence, capitalism, and historical pop art squarely in its face, I have created a loosely connected group of artworks which take as their subjects luxury designer brands, the human body, consumer products, iconic imagery, politics, classic Greek & Roman sculpture, prescription drugs and pixel-glitched computer data corruption. I have appropriated source material from history, social media, pop culture, art history, Wikileaks, the local shopping mall and even hospital radiology files and I use oil paint, enamel and screen printing as a means to mechanically fix these images in stark contrast to the designer logos and fashion brands worshipped by consumers. These works are a critical take on the haves versus the have-nots. I am attempting to fuse separate worlds together — the explosive and visual power of wealth, fashion and money juxtaposed against the grit of conflict, politics and power. The result? Hopefully art that takes collectors to new and sometimes deep and introspective places. I am attempting to contrast the senseless tragedies of our time, ones that are expressed in politics, corruption, medical crisis and the failures and inequalities of the American dream with the status symbols and toys of the wealthy who are often ignorant of the pain and loss experienced by others and present them as history painting, in the tradition of the grand statements by history’s noted artists.