Quirky Project for 2010

It’s time to find out. The first offering on eBay that was strictly matter of fact yielded no takers (even with no reserve.) Not that anyone was that surprised. It takes some selling to make something like this attractive.

As I’m getting ready to send ten copies off to the Museum of Bad Art, I thought this next effort should begin with my own advice on art analysis

So to start, some obvious contrasts

• Pastel background compared to swarthy foreground
• 19th century (Lincoln) vs 20th century (Kennedy)
• Facial hair vs none
• No scandal vs quite a bit

Leading into the greater conflict of secrets kept and secrets revealed, infantile innocence lost to humanity and the power of conspiracy theories and distrust of lawyers.

And finally putting it all together:

The artist’s deliberate use of two iconic figures represents the contrast between secrets kept and scandal revealed; the inevitable movement of society across time to seek knowledge of itself. The subtext that this compulsion can become self-destructive is underscored by the expectation that the viewer will search for what these these two men held in common and be aware of the conspiracy theories surrounding them.  The knowing glance that makes direct contact with the viewer could be interpreted as a smirk or a message across time that secrets kept are indeed hidden until revealed. Thus the viewer becomes  a participant in that same inevitable collision of tectonic plates as privacy yields to a right to know while hero worship is unyielding in the face of factual evidence.

The jarring deliberate use of child-like pastels and brush strokes in the background remind us all that innocence is inherent at birth but lost to the same society that seeks to know, to mold, and to dominate.

There you have it – does it help?  We’ll find out shortly…