My current work pulls from my experience in film and TV, creating worlds and tableau’s  that express a story. Props function as way to advance the story through action, character development and symbolism; often all at the same time. Pulling from my stashes of continuity stills I am reframing my compositions from narrative prop work into paintings, thus filtering these snapshots through a new lens. This series on firearms aims to explore how we in media portray weapons as a story device, and what that portrayal does in the greater society after the work has entered the zeitgeist. Is my work mirroring contemporary culture back to the viewer? Or is it taking on a new thesis?

Why this subject?

For the last 5-10 years I’ve often come back to the question of what do I make and why? Primarily in my personal practice I have more control, and I have to ask myself, “What are you saying with this work? And why does anyone need to hear it?” If it is purely self expression I have the means of a journal, my clothing, my social media. But I tend to think that we make art in the context of the world around us, and have to take agency in what we make and broadcast. Why listen to me? What do I have to say? and who am I to say it?

I came up with a few concepts relating back to my trade, realistically it is the art form I have spent the most hours in and have the largest audience. If you have a television, scroll on social media, or watch you tube videos, you’ve likely seen some of my work. At the very least you’ve been held captive by a commercial I’ve touched before you skipped to the video you were looking for. I’ve been bombarded by lines I’ve heard ad-nauseum on set in my own engagement with the digital world. This is an area I can count myself an expert in and can speak to with the pedigree of my CV and pension hours accrued. 

So I have concepts here I find interesting and can speak to. Why paint them? The images I’m pulling from for source material are continuity stills. Either my documentation of the set or how it appeared through the lens in this set up or that. The first use of these images are for the work of keeping the world on camera consistent. However every one of these frames are just that, a single frame in a moving picture. They were not shot on video to be seen taken out of context of the whole. By the very act of reframing these images I’m highlighting subliminal and literal elements of the frame from larger pieces of media. I am highlighting these elements to further examine their composition, use and meaning. 

Why guns?

I am examining weapons specifically firearms in contemporary media culture. How are they used? In my trade they are props, literal and figurative elements of story. They exist as a story element pushing the narrative forward on screen. But what are they saying as a cultural symbol in these stories? What are they conveying to the viewer at home and how are media consumers taking meaning from their symbolism and use? 

Especially in New York we tend to have a lot of “cop” shows. The Dick Wolf universe is pervasive and a large part of New York’s tv/film world. Handling guns and propping cops, other law enforcement arms, or paramilitary, is a job requirement just as much as watches and pens are. I can scarcely remember a narrative piece I’ve worked on where we didn’t have at least one gun, let alone weapons of other sorts. Their narrative uses range from protection, force, surprise mcguffin, help to escape, leverage over foes, obstacle to overcome, leveling the playing field, to simply a piece of dressing on a character who would be armed for example; a cop.

Are guns just a piece of accurate storytelling when set in America? Or is each appearance functioning on a deeper level both in story and how the public views this element? I’m inclined to say both are true, but the idea that just accurately reflecting American life and culture stops short when the credits roll and my mother starts looking for my name, is a particularly naive one.

Why paint?

By painting these tableaus I am elevating the image to a formally framed object, holding it in esteem. At the same time I am synthesizing the image and reframing it into my practice and my control. In all of these images I had some decision making control inside the ecosystem of a film set. In my studio I regain full control of how I further use them and present them for this body of work and to elaborate on this thesis. 

Also by painting these works they enter the lexicon of my style of painting. Inherently i have hand and style, no matter how hard I might try to emulate an other style of painting. I am not a scenic artist even though I learn much from them and have studied some of that craft. My painting is inherently abstracted, impressionistic and turned slightly surreal by elements of hyper real observation. As a tetrachromat I am drawn to color, often the subtle changes of tone, warmth and coolness a single object can reflect in different conditions. I am also extremely interested in how light plays in the world and  each plane can change as light wraps around a form. 

These elements of my personal style play even deeper in to the examination of symbols in my work. By paying hours of attention to a single form any painter elevates it’s importance to a viewer. The very act of painting, takes a subject from the mundane to the exceptional. Every choice is intentional in a finished work, even if it’s just to express a form in that brushstroke, it builds to push the intention forward. I can draw a direct parallel between the intentionality of choices in television and film to this intentionality. It separates the sketch, or the journal from the finished work.

The linear image of the tangled crochet, steel, and other mixed mediums is a reflection of each person’s societal obligations.  The web represents the sociological forces of the super-ego that bind an individual’s self to the community or the lack thereof.  The light cast through the work reveals textures in the materials and creates secondary imagery in the shadows reverberating the vastness and voids of the super-ego.  Superficially, my work is appealing in its use of texture, color, light, and visual contrast.  However, this installation derives from my obsessive, repetitive work in crocheting and my examination of the idea of comfort.