Sex has been a wealth of inspiration in my work. Coupling our most scrutinized natural act with a curious interest of psychology, I explore child hood violence/sexual development and perceptions that have a seemingly voyeuriostic eye. Utilizing Kitschy sincerity and a pumped up saturation of color as if I were marketing an audience of children. I became interested in the moment of the loss of innocence. How things can seem innocent at first glance but upon closer inspection or use of sexual innuendo these images become unsettling, hence the usage of the stuffed animals serve to numb and ease the visual esthetic.
As these paintings developed, to balance the depiction of toys. I began wanting to explore imagery that was a little more bold. Interested in depriving the viewer of the sensation of touch. Taking pornographic images rearranging the scenes in order to keep the figures from touching one another. Blurring or censoring out nudity in some way so that the action is apparent but not completed. I find that paintings operate in a similar manner as pornography in the way that despite their main functional dependancy on the visual they aim to mimic the sensations of touch. In many classical figurative art styles and movements we artists strived to create a sense on realism and fool the eye by manipulating the paint with intense skill creating the illusion of textures. Trompe L'oeil paintings operate entirely on fooling the eye into thinking what is depicted in paint is actually a tangible object that could be removed from its framed surface. In modernism we see abstract expressionism creating surfaces that conjure up vocabulary like, ruff, thick ,soft, and smooth and simultaneously create a sense of space (Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko).
I employ the the usage of different styles and approaches a believable descriptive space falls into flat obscured space that suddenly draws your attention to thick paint and swirling shapes. A figure might repeat in similar fashion by being distorted by color that draws your eye to a certain action. Recognizable motifs of Color Field painters and elements of the different abstract expressionist are used to break illusion, and add a lyrical lightness to the accumulative impact of the painting.
Jason R. Talley