Painting Series: Blackboards

Blackboards are not typically a vehicle for personal expression. More commonly, they are used to disseminate knowledge to a broader audience. They are a window to specialized information – an educational tool. The paintings in this series will serve both functions. They will feature elements from our civic memory and act as a receptacle for the thoughts, feelings, or perhaps even indiscretions of viewers. I am providing the first half of an equation and inviting the visitors to finish the experience – blurring the line between artist, art, and audience.

In this series of paintings – the blackboard icon is used to reexamine some of what we know about some of our most familiar historical figures, myths, and cultural phenomena. Our understanding of which should not stop at elementary school.

The impetus for this series is my own sense of confusion when confronted with the discord between what we are taught and what seems to be the case. Or perhaps what we are not taught – our selective collective memory. It seems to run parallel to our individual efforts to control the story of our own lives and personas. My images are intended to use some humor and discord to encourage the viewer to reconsider…everything. Chalk and erasers are sometimes provided allowing viewers to add or take away from the information, rewriting history or providing their own. In the end, even in the gallery setting – not even the artist’s voice will have the last say.

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Hidden Mickeys, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2016

Monumental Shame, Robert E. Lee, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2017

Blackboards, installation view

Column Like Lyceum, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2015

White Monticello, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2014

Rushmore or Less, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2016

George Never Smiles, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2014

When Tom Met Sally, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2014

Messiahpithecus, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2014

Columbusted, wood, paint, ink, chalk, 48″ x 72″, 2015

Smooth Criminal, instillation view

Hail Mary, installation view

Vanishing act, installation view

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