Please click the postcard to view the drawings of Domestic Bliss

Domestic Bliss

After two years of working on large scale interconnected drawings for installations, my arms needed a break. For my Graduate Solo Thesis Show, I drew four life size self portraits. Each self portrait was drawn on SheetRock painted an open background blue. The images are rendered in red checking pencil (520 pencils!). Each image is of myself performing an activity commonly considered house work. After having used construction figures for the past two years in my work, I felt the need to portray myself as being able to maintain daily living within the house-chores.

All four portraits sold opening night. However, they caused quite a stir as people could not decide whether I was displaying chauvinism, or some type of gender bending activity. The reality of it was that my fiancee had taken photos of me while I was truly doing chores around my apartment. Absolutely nothing was altered except for the sunglasses which masked my identity. I find it amazing how often reality causes politicized debates often having nothing to do with the images themselves. I believe strong work often does this as a metanarrative injected into the subject matter, just to stir up political sensibilities. In leaving the backgrounds 'open', I intentionally made it possible for viewers to project their own contexts. These are often as imaginative and humorous as the work itself.

Each panel 48" x 68", framed in gilded molding, matted with faux wood panelling, red checking pencil on blue SheetRock. Melville Gallery, Stony Brook, NY. April-May 2002.