I’m working on a series dubbed Pop Fiction which is centered around parody-type concepts of imagery from my youth that has been engrained not only in my mind for life, but into American culture as well. Bringing characters, shows, music, and movies together is nothing short of fantastical mash ups that leave the mind bent for a few seconds and then percolates the inner child which is tickled by the juxtaposition of the selected subject matters. For example, the piece titled Pulp Street had to do with my love of sesame street as a very young child to the affect of the cult classic Pulp Fiction on my teenage years. As someone who grew up in the midst of these societal-pervading entities I have to regurgitate new meaning on the details of what specifically made these programs so successful.
My second installment to the Pop Fiction series is an ode to the hip-hop culture with a take on Lil Wayne. If Animal from the muppets had a more ‘human’ aspect to his character the personality and raunchiness of Lil Wayne would be a spitting reflection. Animal was a crazed muppet who was always making a statement with his ‘animal-nature’ and this definitely crosses over into the marketing of a huge rap-superstar such as the aforementioned. I always pictured Animal off-stage cracking a 40 oz., firing up a blunt, and acting in his maniacal fashion.
This series falls into the Rated R category, but it cracks me up how much kids connect with these paintings just because of the muppet characters portrayed. It seems to bewilder the sponge-like mind of the youth and intrigue them enough to question why these characters they enjoy and know so well are ‘out of character’. I like to tell the audience and viewers who come to my shows with these pieces hanging that the work is not “G” and if anything it is “O.G.”. The point obviously is to create humor with a dark spin and I think it is important for every young human being to be able to negotiate the always seemingly happy side of everything…including their favorite cartoon and kid-show characters.
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