uhm ok, so the painting with the donut was part of my senior portfolio and was eventually bought from a show in the lower east side. the same couple who bought it commissioned me 3 more paintings same size, same style, same theme. For the portfolio we basically had to pick something that we care about and twist it into a cohesive body of work. My body of work was not cohesive at all, it looked more like a bride of frankenstein type of body, but I sort of had a theme: what I cared about was philosophy and food. I decided to work under a title "la pasticceria filosofica" (the philosophical bakery).
And the Good Intentions painting came. I followed the theme for the other 3 even though at that point I could barely remember what the fuck I meant. I can even remember it less NOW, so I'll just throw some threads. I am not very articulate when it comes to pretentiousness.
I was going to use some philosophical topics that I am interested in, and explain them through food (first sentence and already we are falling into nonsense) as something that should be a basic need but that in this culture became a mindless habit and a commercial vice.
For the "good intentions" I threw the concept of Homo Homini Lupus, men is a wolf among other men, the failure in the perspective of an healthy cooperation for a common wealth. A sugar coated treat, the promise of dreams for cheap, but the blades in it (the real price we pay, a planet dying, a humanity wasted in stupidity and demagogy) remind us (or they don't, since we keep swallowing the deadly crumbs) that we are consciously damaging ourselves AND each other. We all have good intentions but we speak well and roll terribly.
Easy dreams, easy satisfaction, easy rewards, our lives are cheap.
The one with the eyeball-machine was originally inspired by a flyer that someone handed to me. It claimed that god had a wonderful plan for me and it made me quite upset. Once again, taking what they feed us as sweet and growing an irresponsible optimism over it. Their lies, the soporific pills we swallow under disguise of a luscious soft serve. God is a mere machine, a troglodyte attempt to keep us sleepy and uncritical. The girl's tattoo says -mental disorder global domination- Keeping people insane through world propaganda. I actually got it tattooed myself hehehe
The next one is based on the concept of absurdity. This used to be a deeper and important concept of existentialism but today it seems to apply on a much more sleazy level. The boredom driving today's life is a byproduct of a culture that owns and produce all sorts of useless crap and find itself not knowing what to do with it. We become absurd as an economic mechanism. How squalid is that? Also, I really wanted to paint my roommate pulling her teeth off, don't ask why, I don't know, but there is something about teeth that I can't resist. If you look up on a symbols dictionary the meaning of falling teeth it sends you to the term "beheading". There is something about beheading that I can't resist too.
The girl's tattoo translates as "a vexation weights down on me". It's part of a poem called "boredom" by a romantic and pessimistic italian poet, Giacomo Leopardi.
The last one i think is also about absurdity, grinding shit that doesn't need to be grind but just enjoyed. We make everything harder and much more complicated than what it should actually be, turning life itself into meaningless. The sticker on the grinder is a quote from Camus. "cette revolte de la chair", "this rebellion of the flesh" ...his definition of absurdity. I though it made sense if I put it over the grinder, something supposed to grind flesh.
Oh, all the tattoos are Disney Characters to underline the lightness and cheapness of this very perverse system that turns down intelligence in favor of ignorance and false happiness.
Uh, I guess I AM articulate in pretentiousness.
