New Deal 2, 2007, 132" x 95", acrylic on synthetic canvas, hanging rod
New Deal 2, 2007,
132" x 95", acrylic on synthetic canvas, hanging rod
What is the Deal with These Paintings?
Defacement
While fretting over delayed textbooks, my seventh grade social studies instructor unknowingly issued me a peculiar American History textbook. When I opened it, I discovered that a student from a prior generation had defaced the illustrations with a ballpoint pen. Mustaches and eyeglasses were drawn on portraits of historical figures; warplanes and speedboats were added to landscapes like the Boston Tea Party. Delighted with this unexpected comic book, I took editorial control and began extending the illustrations into the margins by adding buildings and creating new scenes--my personal Manifest Destiny. Within a few weeks, I was disciplined and issued a clean textbook, a bill, and a stern warning.
Boot Camp
The narrative of history is always being transformed. As an art student of the late 70s, I was exposed to a predominantly progressive faculty who used Marxist critical theory. Their process of deconstruction was applied to the study of American History and to the visual arts as well. I began using the process without the dogma, and realized that a partial narrative out of its original context creates a kind of social surrealism--an absurd record.
The Story Goes On
Using a based-on-precedent policy over the last 25 years, I have created a body of work much like the defaced illustrations of my formative years. Commentary is suggested; visual information is repeated; point of view is obfuscated. The resulting compositions are truly mixed messages--which speak or don't speak--for themselves.
Richard Deon, November 2009