THEDIRTYFABULOUS
THEDIRTYFABULOUS - The Subtle Threads of Fate - mixed media on metal with polyurethane varnish -60 x 40 inches / 153 x 102cm. - 2012 -2013
“The Subtle Threads of Fate” is a line taken from the novel Wind up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. This painting does not illustrate any particular passage or character in the novel. Rather, it is a meditation on death and the symbolic, almost prophetic quality, even the most mundane occurrences in our lives can have upon us. This painting also serves, obliquely, as homage to the author. It is mirrored into two halves in a broken symmetry. On the left side images refer to spring, opulence and excess. The right side of the composition refers to states of decay, death, winter and transcendence. At the top of the painting, two muses with intertwined hair and coral branches support an interconnected series of tarot-card type images. These cards feature images of death, power lines at dusk, a maiden at a spinning wheel and an omniscient eye, which was borrowed from an old surrealist photograph. These images act to further weave together references and connections the painting alludes to. Two white hands of fate situated at the lower portion of the picture act as a connecting point to these images. At the bottom center of the work is an image of an old astrological map. The background of the entire work is a sepia toned landscape; an idyllic panorama with the coloration of dead autumn grass and a volcano erupting in the far distance. Two moons anchor the top left and right corners of the image - a reference found in Murakami’s novel, IQ84. Though there are references to Murakami’s novels, overall the images and symbols embedded in this painting have more in common with images found in artworks from the 15th -18th centuries.
THEDIRTYFABULOUS - Garden of Earthly Delights - mixed media on metal with polyurethane varnish -60 x 40 inches / 153 x 102cm. - 2012-2014
This work takes its inspiration from Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-04). Two women bracket each side of the picture, each in repose among a morass of baroque ornamentation. The images in my version refer to images/ symbolism found in Bosch’s triptych. Here prescription drugs, a spray can, human skulls, firearms and a popsicle, help form a roughly symmetrical approximation of a dystopian cartoon panorama. Small vignettes that punctuate the top of the work highlight some of the symbols and meaning found in Bosch’s 16th century original. The left orange vignette features two small children in an Eden like setting with the young girl handling a snake. The right side orange vignette shows an inquisition like scene with a man being strung up to a tree and tortured. Both vignettes comment on humanity’s innocence and inclination toward persecution. Between these images, at the top center of the panel is an image of a female eye; an omniscient heavenward gaze with glazed eyeball and streaked mascara. It is an image meant to be both spiritual and erotic in connotation, carelessly paper clipped to the scene.
Giant pulleys lift a green curtain to reveal a scene featuring two pinup maidens, hanging strands of pearls, candy necklaces, oozing lilies and birds. Historically, birds have been used as symbols of freedom, spirituality, and messengers of divination. These perched throughout as a reference to the multitude of animals that populate Bosch’s piece.
THEDIRTYFABULOUS - Garden of Earthly Delights - mixed media on metal with polyurethane varnish -60 x 40 inches / 153 x 102cm. - 2012-2014
Societies have long employed images that visualize their belief systems or attempt to encapsulate a narrative of our human destiny. This work follows in that tradition. The uppermost vignette is a silhouette from the nursery rhyme “Jack be nimble”, a children’s rhyme that refers to a 19th century game and a form of fortune telling. In Roman mythology Parcae (plural) were the personifications of fate. They are used in this painting as bookend figures on either side of a cosmic machine that answers questions of fate. Three vintage light bulbs labeled “yes”, “maybe” and “no” sit atop the clock – like machine and illuminate answers to humanity’s eternal questions. At the top of the composition are several re- configured tarot / divination cards belonging to an anonymous person circa 1930’s. The cards here are labeled; satisfaction dark woman, jealousy, dark man and betrayal. The grouping of these four cards refers to both positive and negative potentials concerning fate and offer clues to the viewer on a number of possible scenarios it could describe. The lower portion of the picture contains two silhouetted vignettes on either side of a central image of stars and planets against a dark void. The left image is of two children in a small wagon being pulled by a beetle. This is a reference to Egyptian mythology and the sun god Khepri. who personifies birth / rebirth. Khepri is portrayed as a beetle that pushes the sun across the sky. Here the young innocents take a whip to the insect and begin their mortal journey at dawn. On the right side an aged field hand personifying the reaper stops tilling the earth to take a pause over a few scattered burial markers under a tree. This image is a reference to mortality and death silhouetted against the flat turquoise blue of an evening sky. In the bottom center of the composition, several “all knowing” cosmic eyes tumble out of the bottom of the machine from a dispenser common to old candy gumball machines. The lowest portion of the picture contains a somewhat barren panoramic landscape. It evokes both potential and decay and is meant to bridge the contrasting vignettes above it.
THEDIRTYFABULOUS - BIO
Born in the Year of the Dragon.
Thedirtyfabulous produces relics of the modern American psyche in large-‐scale mixed media paintings and drawings. Referencing diverse historical, literary and pop subjects; the compositions are littered with symbolic imagery that is part satire, personal musing and broken alchemy. This body of work began in 1993 with various pieces being shown in Europe, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and New York City.
This series is influenced by a number of sources such as, Hieronymus Bosch, Japanese woodblock prints, pulp novels, pin ups, classical mythology, tarot cards, psychedelic posters, and vintage photography.
Settings of dilapidated buildings, junkyards and detritus are often paired with images associated with folk religion, personal loss, decay and the profusion of consumer culture. Teeth, bones, fingernails, locks of hair, bottles of elixirs and straight razors populate cartoonish tableaus that serve as visual commentary on many subjects.
The images form a cast of characters and scenarios that refer to and portray as part of a large storybook /fable. The content of this myth/story repeatedly refers back to stories of humanity’s folly. Consequently, I feel what is portrayed in these paintings and drawings is quite traditional and has many historical parallels. It assembles an ad-hoc mythology, a narrative structure, which elucidates those experiences common to our modern condition. Though intended to be fun in their approach and dark humor, they can have their serious interpretations as well.
Exhibitions / Group Shows
Chrome Chocolate
Mainsite Contemporary Art, 2006
Group Show
Ad Hoc Art, Brooklyn New York, 2009
Dark Pop
Last Rites Gallery, New York, NY, 2009
Stroke 02
International Urban Art Fair, Munich, Germany 2010
Cannibal Flower
Los Angeles, 2011
Summer Thieves
Oklahoma City, 2013
TheDirtyFabulous
Living Arts / Tulsa, OK, 2013 (scheduled)
Publication
Juxtapoz Magazine
Web Features
Tumblr Open Arts, Slow Art Day, Juxtapoz
Work… and music to make the work…