Self Portrait; End of the Angry Man
2011
Dimensions: 11″ x 14″
Medium: Pencil, charcoal, acrylic and spray paint on canvas board
October 7, 2011
Pluto; The Rapist God
- Pluto
To thee, great king, Avernus is assign’d,
The seat of Gods, and basis of mankind.
Thy throne is fix’d in Hade’s dismal plains,
Distant, unknown to rest, where darkness reigns;
Where, destitute of breath, pale spectres dwell,
In endless, dire, inexorable hell;
And in dread Acheron, whose depths obscure,
Earth’s stable roots eternally secure.
O mighty dæmon, whose decision dread,
The future fate determines of the dead,
With captive Proserpine, thro’ grassy plains,
Drawn in a four-yok’d car with loosen’d reins,
Rapt o’er the deep, impell’d by love, you flew
‘Till Eleusina’s city rose to view;
There, in a wond’rous cave obscure and deep,
The sacred maid secure from search you keep,
The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display
An entrance to the kingdoms void of day.
Of unapparent works, thou art alone
The dispensator, visible and known.
O pow’r all-ruling, holy,
honor’d light, Thee sacred poets and their hymns delight:
Propitious to thy mystic’s works incline,
Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.
2011
Dimensions: 11″ x 14″
Medium:
Beeswax/linseed stand oil cold encaustic, oils, and polyester lace on canvas
February 28, 2011
Saturn V
- Saturn V
Dimensions: 25.25″ x 33.5″
Medium: Oil on board
From Chaos, You enter my dreams like a river of piss, unbathed with an unclean mind. The rage of 10,000 dying lunatics cannot match your loathsomeness. You know the length of eternity, and eternity is your wait. My time is fleeting, but my love is not. O Father of Great Jupiter, Son of Uranus! Most Mighty Saturn, hear me!
In Hesiod’s Theogony, an account of the creation of the universe and Jupiter’s rise to power, Saturn is mentioned as the son of Uranus (the Greek equivalent of Roman Caelus), the heavens, and Gaia (the Greek equivalent of Terra), the Earth. Hesiod is an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. He writes that Saturn seizes power, castrating and overthrowing his father Uranus. However, it was foretold that one day a mighty son of Saturn would in turn overthrow him, and Saturn devoured all of his children when they were born to prevent this. Saturn’s wife, Rhea (often identified with the Roman goddess Ops), hid her sixth child, Jupiter, on the island of Crete, and offered Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in his place; Saturn promptly devoured it. Jupiter later overthrew Saturn and the other Titans, becoming the new supreme ruler of the cosmos. This was the end of the Golden Age of Man.
January 26, 2011
Vore
Vore
2007
Dimensions: 28 “x 40″
Medium: Stainless steel, epoxy resin plastination of dessicated apple and wood
“…For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
Jesus Christ; John 6:51-58
This sculpture is a juxtaposition of materials and a minor statement regarding the consuming of high technology (nature) to produce low technology (man-made). We need to look no further than a simple flower growing in the garden to witness technology beyond our understanding. The human machination of destroying one greater resource to produce a quantity of lesser commodities is truly equal to de-evolution (Devo), yet we do it relentlessly and without end. We cannot help ourselves from this lust, it is in our religions, it is in our DNA too apparently.
Had human beings and dinosaurs existed alongside one another, the extinct species would have certainly been systematically slaughtered and used for food and materiel by their human predators. There is no morsel on Earth and beyond that can escape the human desire to conquer, destroy and consume.
To create the web for this piece, I generated a CAD drawing that was then used to create a cutting path for a specialized high temperature laser that could cut stainless steel in the delicate pattern taken directly from a photograph of an orb weaver’s design. It would have been disingenuous for me to try to create a spider’s web of my own design, when the original is a flawless layout created over millions of years of natural evolution.
The part of the sculpture that represent the fragile and withering human form (biology) was made from dessicated apple flesh dried around a wooden skeleton, made from walnut and hickory branches. The parts were carved at about 200% larger than what they eviscerated to. Two part epoxy resin was then saturated into the dried apple flesh, creating a plastination of the materials. The technique is essentially the same used by the ancient Egyptians to preserve humans and other animals, however, they used natural resins rather than the synthetic epoxy that was used on this. The planned dehydrating of the apple sculpture produced a natural emaciated tautness that would be hard to plan and replicate via traditional sculptural means. It was my study in “planned chaos” using apples much like the american folk tradition of dried apple dolls. Ötzi (the Iceman), a natural mummy found in the German Alps in 1991, was referenced many times to look at where the dessication should be most pronounced. The natural discoloring of the apples and wood along with the glaze from the epoxy coating certainly looked remarkably similar to photos of the frozen corpse.
The piece was hung and observed for four years to ensure the archival quality had taken effect. Another use of dessicated/plastinated apples can be found in my other 2007 piece The Internet and Ol’ Putrefying Uncle Sam.
October 20, 2010
Upcoming exhibition; Damned III in Detroit, MI
My Post-Mortem Self Portrait (2010) artwork (charcoal, pencils, pens, oil, acrylic) will be on public display for the first time on October 28-30, 2010 within a group exhibition Damned III in Detroit, Michigan (USA) at the Tangent Gallery / Hastings Ballroom, 715 E Milwaukee St, Detroit, MI 48202. The timing of the show is to coincide with the infamous “Devil’s Night” in Detroit, where rioters and arsonists began the slow, destruction of the once thriving metropolis.
To fully understand this phenomenon, one simply needs to drive through Detroit (city) on a clear day. The cityscape is both heart-wrenching, and at times, almost absurdly humorous. Entire city blocks missing, just grass, trees and building foundations used as inter-city gardens. Unemployment is estimated to be at around 50%, yet money still flows freely among some and certain businesses continue to thrive. The artists and entertainers have always been a great export for Detroit and that tradition is alive and well there today still.
Though my art is in the tradition of Absurdism/Pessimism, the theme of the exhibition is “Introspective” and this piece certainly falls into that realm. I am not an outsider artist because of training, however some of my mediums and topics do fall outside of traditional formula. An exhibition of both regional, national and international artists, this is my second year participating in the show and one that I did not want to miss because it is simply entertaining to be at.
The artwork was thoroughly explained in a previous entry <here>. The concept went through many iterations over the years until I finally settled on this one as being the closest thing to what I was seeing in my mind. It continues to be a popular search on this website, and revealed to me the staggering amount of people curious about the putrefaction of a human body. I always thought of this work as more clinical or silly and not a “horror” piece, hence the complete avoidance of black. It can be distressing to accept that we and everyone we will ever know will, if left to nature, transform into a vile smelling, garish colored mess. Sometimes when I look into a mirror, I can imagine the areas within my likeness that will change dramatically after death. Being caucasian, my skin and mucous membranes will adapt the greenish color due to bacteria and blood will pool in my extremities as gravity assists. Tardeau’s spots (broken capillaries) will form throughout my body as radial striations of blood. Ocular changes will include my cornea becoming cloudy within a few hours, and the conjunctiva will become dark. The lips begin to dessicate quickly and shrink “open” to expose the teeth (stitching the lips is a requirement of embalming because of this).
Of course all of this is just the scribblings of an artist. Death is the great equalizer, I do not dwell on it in my daily life but I like to use it in my art to counter the bombardment of aesthetic ideals from commercial advertising.
I am planning on having five signed archival giclee prints of my Bob Ross Rotting Watercolor I (2008) available there for sale at only $40 ea. as well. See you there friends!
August 29, 2010
When all the Gods are dead…..
Why Prayers Go Unanswered
One day, human beings will (mostly) no longer believe in anthropomorphized deities meddling in our daily lives. Though there may still be a belief in an “after-life” among certain cultures (evidence from NDEs and human tendencies toward primitivism), the idea of a religion will become obsolete when it is collectively realized that no one living can credibly have the answers to these things . Thus everything ever written, ever told about an after-life cannot be taken as fact nor faith since its authors were mere mortals themselves. Wait and see is the only reality. You have as much knowledge of the afterlife as does the Catholic Pope or even an atheist, and that amounts to none. It is not proselytizing or part of any dogma to exclaim: Be kind to others and be a good person, since this may be the only life we ever get. And most importantly, focus all your energies toward raising good and knowledgable children, they are everything, they are the living future.
Gods and religions do die off…..why would our contemporary humanized ”gods” not suffer the same fate of expiration as every other deity from humanity’s past? Everything ends. But our history of faith has structured our existence and defined us as we built our beliefs on things we can never understand. We are inherently a very confused species. We have historically destroyed one religion only replace it with another almost more ridiculous one. Why is Zeus any less relevant than Jesus? Perhaps give Hermes (known as Mercury in Roman BCE) a prayer tonight for better financial success….he may reward you.
Note: Poll was revised per comments for clarity. Buddhism was intentionally left off as I believe it to be a philosophy as opposed to a religion. Subsequently, Hindu was almost removed as it actually regarded as a reification of traditions and practices.
August 21, 2010
Mickey Exhumation Sketch
Mickey Exhumation Sketch
In 1938, his tiny body was placed with the utmost care into a silk-lined matchbox coffin, then buried, only to be exhumed 8 months later and placed on a bookshelf by the grieving Walter Disney. Upon sliding open the matchbox cover, several of the “special” Disney staff members remarked at how well his body had remained intact, almost as if he was just still sleeping.
Mickey Mouse of course had died, but it has been suggested that perhaps Walter Disney had Mickey’s body “treated” (embalmed) after the devastating loss. It was after all, Mickey that launched Disney’s career and the entire franchise that has successfully persisted up until the present times. Excesses from stardom most likely contributed to the drug-related death.
I was asked to “visually record” the remains as no photography of any kind was allowed. He was laid to rest in the garments he was made so famous in, the colors less saturated and bit stained from the leaking body fluids. There was surprisingly just a hint of a smell of decomposition from the mini corpse. He appeared to be drained of all fluids and was just emaciated tissue over bone. His entire corpse could fit well within the palm of my hands, such a large presence on-screen, but so fragile and tiny in death.
-W.B.R.
June 29, 2010
Another Gallery Exhibition
Unloved
Concurrent to the TAA Exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art where my artwork Earth A.D. will be, six of the Unloved Series will be hanging just across the street in the Parkwood Gallery at 1838 Parkwood Ave in Toledo, Ohio from July 9 to August 23. I will most likely be there for the opening reception of the Salon Des Refuses show on 7-09-2010 from 6pm-10pm for a short while. My plan is to bounce back and forth between exhibitions throughout the evening.
I encourage anyone interested in contemporary art from the Toledo, Ohio scene or that want to meet me in person to attend. If you wish to receive a formal postcard invitation, please send me your name and address via the Contact tab at the top of this page. It promises to be a fun night of art and socializing!
I wrote a little about the concept of Unloved in a prior blog here
May 20, 2010
Bob Ross Rotting (Concept Watercolor I)
Bob Ross Rotting (Watercolor Study II)
This was one of the initial concepts of a post-mortem Bob Ross, the late famous American television how-to painter. He primarily worked with oils rendering imagined landscapes with a wet-on-wet oils and palette knife techniques. Though his work is most often considered as kitsch, he had embedded himself within pop culture with his anecdotal narratives whilst he painted during his television show. He was fond of his “lonely old trees” and “happy little clouds” that he imbued into his works. I eventually settled on the straight-on frontal view for the final artwork.
The world that Bob left has only gotten worse. Being the eternal nature-loving optimist that he was, what do you believe Bob would have thought about the undersea oil geyser in the Gulf currently spoiling the ocean for many years to come? Whereas Bob saw the planet Earth as the life-giving orb that it once was, I foresee a Venus in the making.
May 8, 2010
Blue Death
Blue Death
Blue Death is a formula. It is an aggregate of disjointed things throughout my life. Crashing computers, old ammonia blueprints, Minoan octopus art, and sanitizing one’s creative identity. Creative energy coiled, ready to attack a dull wit. Embedded personal codes and a deliberate misuse of the short “s” typography in my name. I am looking right back at you with the same unimpressed gaze. I am however a large (36″x36″) shield of enduring aluminum now, Diebond panel to be exact. There are no brush strokes or even a hint of human creation in this incarnation, I am purely vector replicated and machine-made. You could destroy this copy, but another could be made. Not a self-portrait, but a portrait of my mind.
