I was approached in the spring of 2011 by Craig Turner (Craig Turner Gallery Maidstone, UK) about a collaborative art project simply dubbed Tag 33. The idea intrigued me because of the distance between me (USA) and the other artists (UK), as well as cultural and philosophical differences. Most all American artists are firmly schooled in the modern and post-modern approach to art because we simply do not have the history those other older cultures have. My background is technical illustration and design, something even further removed from the expressive and painterly dominion of fine art. Most importantly, however, is that I come from a culture where a career in the traditional arts is not a well-respected vocation. In juxtaposition, Europe has millennia of art appreciation and institutionally developed instincts for the nurturing of it. I know that I can never exceed the sum of my parts, I was made by the ascetic American system….but from the New World I project a kinship with those painters and paintings from a far-off land.

I basically stopped painting and drawing in early 2011 and had not really done much with fine art throughout that year. So receiving the packet of art in the mail from Craig was as if I was a recovering junkie getting a package of fresh heroin in the mail. Many have stated that art is merely a means to relax and express themselves, but to an artist, it is an affliction or a compulsion rooted as deeply as the instinct to breath, eat or procreate.

When I received the artwork from Craig and the others, I immediately saw gleaming amounts of optimism within them.  Many had bright swathes of paint applied in primordial undulating strokes, providing an outlet for unrealized or even new ideas to manifest. I went about creating on them with pens, pencils, paint and spray paint; materials more familiar to hardware and craft stores than fine art. With some, I simply used older drawings that fit within the context of the new collaborative work.  I was able to bring in some of my unrealized Unloved Series concepts and some that I was never able to create beyond simple ideation sketches.

One particular piece Hermaphrodite Pirates Encounter the Sirens was derived from an old sketch that I created some time back. This is a special one for me because it is composed of elements of my mind from the past such as the ancient Greek odyssey mythologies, philosophical absurdism and present scientific knowledge about human genetics and disease. The concept blossomed when I saw the acrylic work on cardstock that Craig had created for this project which would later become the sun-bleached island backdrop for the imagined encounter. The painting was featured in Book 7, Class Clowns issue of Beautiful/Decay Magazine. I was asked to participate in one their conceptual “Projects”, and having just finished the work days before, submitted the collaborative artwork after reading the only given description:

“Laughter is universal; it transcends culture, trends, eras and time. The art world, however, is not thought of as droll. Galleries and museums are stern, intellectual spaces and works of art are discussed in academic terms. And yet in this scholarly world there are artists that buck conventions and use humor to engage us, make us laugh and make us think.”