IMMIGRATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY cont'd.
I love John Currin's paintings, partly because he is so willing to create images that are beautifully strange and, when he started, so incredibly un-hip. But it's that courage to publicize his own dreams and weirdness that disarms and inspires a more forgiving, humanist take on his art. He reminds us that it takes guts to just be yourself, but it's worth it.
A lot of the dissatisfaction that drove my work into this direction was the feeling that it had never openly referred to the many things that I cared about and was therefore not as meaningful and great as it could be. The series of soft-focus, Richter-esque faces I did last year were a catalyst and a sort of missing link for the leap into this present look. I figured if I could do something as difficult as faces then what am I waiting for? Now I'm an image farmer, or rather hunter-gatherer, and the entire visual universe is just a vast savannah of raw material for these mash-up paintings. The real and imaginary characters of my life have immigrated into the painted world and they are welcome to act out any number of plays in these permanent mazes of possibility, for my glory or humiliation. I'm so ready.
