Modern Fairy Tales
My show is about false prophets,from those who hide in the folds of religion to the quasi-religious,equally monstrous corporations and governments. All have their own congregations and morality. Governments make rules about what you should and shouldn’t do. Corporations peddle their own doctrines of greed; it’s “moral” to put profit ahead of protecting the environment or people’s lives — mining accidents are acceptable, polluting the water is fine, providing no health care benefits or pension is the new norm.
In recent history a lot of banks went down for taking ridiculous risks — those in charge cheated, lied and stole, but when the dust cleared, very few people were held responsible. Punishment? Some even got bonuses for their deceitfulness. With government, you hear of everything from sex scandals, to selling offices, taking money from hidden donors, and even complicity in mass murders. Yet they still have their flocks.
This exhibition is not meant to attack any one religion, but merely to address the problems of some of the people who follow it and of the way other powers likewise dictate injustice. The ongoing legacy of Catholic priests engaged in pedophilia (and the hypocrisy of the church patriarchy as it continues to try to “manage” these abuse cases), the story of an anti - gay Christian minister getting caught himself in a homosexual scandal, a church member elected to a congregational council presidency who turns out to be “that” serial killer — all these tales show us that evil acts can be committed by anyone.
It troubles me that the supposedly righteous, God - fearing people are, while loudly professing their beliefs in religion, capitalism and democracy, are in fact being liars, crooks, sexual deviants, even murders. These are the people I am portraying in Modern Fairy Tales. I figure that if they feel they have a right to tell me how morally wrong I am, I can point out the irony in their behavior.
In this body of work I’ve tried to combine a lot of these elements into whimsical cartoon images with very gruesome undertones and taboos. This is the world I see in 2011. Our country is in financial ruin because of deregulation and legalized Ponzi schemes. We have many wars worldwide. We have leaders firing at their own citizen, vast unemployment, and a giant gap between a few extremely rich oligarchs and the billions of poor who are relatively powerless but are asked to “keep believing” in God, government and business. Lately we have dealt with hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, tornadoes, and extreme heat, all at a time when there is debt and deficit, when there is “no money” to help people or rebuild.
These are all things I call Modern Fairy Tales, a collection of my inner thoughts about the world.
- Gear
My show is about false prophets,from those who hide in the folds of religion to the quasi-religious,equally monstrous corporations and governments. All have their own congregations and morality. Governments make rules about what you should and shouldn’t do. Corporations peddle their own doctrines of greed; it’s “moral” to put profit ahead of protecting the environment or people’s lives — mining accidents are acceptable, polluting the water is fine, providing no health care benefits or pension is the new norm.
In recent history a lot of banks went down for taking ridiculous risks — those in charge cheated, lied and stole, but when the dust cleared, very few people were held responsible. Punishment? Some even got bonuses for their deceitfulness. With government, you hear of everything from sex scandals, to selling offices, taking money from hidden donors, and even complicity in mass murders. Yet they still have their flocks.
This exhibition is not meant to attack any one religion, but merely to address the problems of some of the people who follow it and of the way other powers likewise dictate injustice. The ongoing legacy of Catholic priests engaged in pedophilia (and the hypocrisy of the church patriarchy as it continues to try to “manage” these abuse cases), the story of an anti - gay Christian minister getting caught himself in a homosexual scandal, a church member elected to a congregational council presidency who turns out to be “that” serial killer — all these tales show us that evil acts can be committed by anyone.
It troubles me that the supposedly righteous, God - fearing people are, while loudly professing their beliefs in religion, capitalism and democracy, are in fact being liars, crooks, sexual deviants, even murders. These are the people I am portraying in Modern Fairy Tales. I figure that if they feel they have a right to tell me how morally wrong I am, I can point out the irony in their behavior.
In this body of work I’ve tried to combine a lot of these elements into whimsical cartoon images with very gruesome undertones and taboos. This is the world I see in 2011. Our country is in financial ruin because of deregulation and legalized Ponzi schemes. We have many wars worldwide. We have leaders firing at their own citizen, vast unemployment, and a giant gap between a few extremely rich oligarchs and the billions of poor who are relatively powerless but are asked to “keep believing” in God, government and business. Lately we have dealt with hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, tornadoes, and extreme heat, all at a time when there is debt and deficit, when there is “no money” to help people or rebuild.
These are all things I call Modern Fairy Tales, a collection of my inner thoughts about the world.
- Gear
"Behold Earth's last supper" 22 X 29
_"King of the screws" 23.5" x 29.5" graphite on paper
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"Confessions of an altar boy" 22" x 29" graphite, and spray paint on paper
"Confessions of an altar boy" 22" x 29" graphite, and spray paint on paper
_"What the people don't know won't hurt them" 22" x 29" graphite on paper
_"Leviathan" 15.5" x 32" graphite on paper
_"Double, double toil and trouble" 22" x
29" graphite on paper
_"By the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes" 22" x 29" graphite and spray paint on paper
_"How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!" 22" X 29 graphite on paper