Aw yes, change has come and sped up drowsy evolution. My setting, my person, and my mind have all changed. It's only natural. My inner compass has led me to another geographical location and, though pain and discomfort arise, my senses strengthen and my mission becomes all the more clearer: to paint my generation.
My interest in people stems from birth, but I became consciously charged back in 2006, when I was living my eclectic little Hyde Park apartment back in Austin. It was there that I became aware of the youth culture and how our experience is uniquely American. I was first intrigued by the decisions we'd make, the things we'd say, the music we'd listen to, our values, our goals or lack of goals, our understanding or lack of understanding of our surroundings, and our preferences. Are we the future? Yes. Younger generations are looking to us everyday without consciously knowing it and this circumstance along with what we do about it is not the point of my paintings. The point is that America's socio-economic crises and all the history that led up to them has affected us. There is immense pressure on us to carry the older generation out of the funk and lead the younger generation to reform. How do we deal when something impossible to fix hangs over our heads? How do we exist? We live each day in the present tense because it's all we can do based on what we've been handed. Perhaps we are seen as hedonists, self-entitled brats, or, to borrow from Hunter S. Thompson, "a generation of swine." Perhaps I agree or disagree, but I know this: we work hard, help, laugh with, and miss each other. We are forced to get creative with gifts and forms of recreation all in order to alleviate the pressure. Most of all, we must make time to relax in order to continue on and, oddly enough, we enjoy this challenge.
In my paintings depicting my subterranean world, I want to stimulate your senses and invite you to feel the energy I put forth via my amplified palette and exaggerated gestures. What I paint for you is from my own filter. It is not my intent to give you an objective or truthful account. Rather, I wish to portray an experience based on my own perceptions of how I see my comrades, dressed in the color of their own uniqueness. At the same time, they create and interact with their declared setting, thus suggesting a definitive harmony which contains every sensation. With this, you will hear the metallic ring of the stereo, the scent of warm beer and simmering hotlinks over charcoal, feel a humid breeze and naturally enter into depicted conversations I've provided for you. Do you know these people or do you have yet to meet them? Can you relate to them? For one thing, it is my moral obligation to document the youth culture. For another, I will only be satisfied by painting these things and delving even deeper into chasm and chaos.
It is the late fall of 2009 now, and I no longer live in Austin, but my quest has just begun and I thrive as the journey rolls on. I travel throughout Central, North and East Texas often and continue documenting the youth by photographing images for reference. I wait, listen, ask, confront, and comment. It is my hopes for you to become enlivened by the sounds, actions and gestures coming from what you see in my paintings. More importantly, I want you to think, think, think....and then ponder some more.
- MD November 20, 2009 3:23pm
Artist statement, 2008
I obtain a surge of passion when the roving, ancient spirit of each age transcends upon me and resurfaces through my chosen medium. Similar to its own mutability, this familiar Zeitgeist is liberal and allows me to choose my own manifestation of him. I must be bold, as one choice may be more close to his essence than the next.
Like Proteus, he changes form just as I begin to have power over him. I am only allowed a mere glimpse before he leaves me on my own to finish my creation. He seems to know my heart and he strengthens my perceptions. Am I striving to catch him? Does he want me to catch him? With this, I am enlivened to continue on with my journey unto completion.
My goal is to capture and portray this wondrous and versatile spirit as truly as possible. I hope all who observe my work experience the subtle balance of familiarity and the unknown; of boundary and limitlessness. In a society where everyone has given up, I strive to reawaken a child-like curiosity, a strong sense of history and an acknowledgment of the times we are in in every person. As a result, I gather that all will become more in-tuned with themselves and gear toward proaction and accountability.
For what I am coming to discover is myself...
- MD April 10, 2009 9:27am