Vice Jeans

In my studio over the last year or so, I've been exploring women in media, commercialsm, excess, objectification, sexualization, branding, beauty, and high fashion, and the connection between all of those. I'm not taking a profound stance against any of the things I mentioned, because I'm not at all against or offended by any of them. They all actually fascinate me in different ways. My Vice brand pieces are an exploration of these ideas. My most recent painting, 'Vice Jeans' was an idea I had when out on a jog. I was thinking of advertisements and how beautiful people are used to sell things. The joke being told, the song played, or the beautiful people modeling in advertisements are what stick with me. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I actually rarely even notice what's being sold. So I thought it would be interesting to create a parody of all these ideas; I thought it would be funny to create a jeans ad that barely shows the jeans at all.

Let me back up a step. Around 100 years ago, artists like J.C. Leyendecker and Mucha were creating beautiful paintings to promote clothing, theater and other such things. Their works, while very different from each other, emanated style, class, and beauty. They poured days to weeks at a time into laboring over one painting. This type of work doesn't exist as it did back then. For the most part, these paintings have been replaced by photography, typography, or less commonly, simple digital illustrations (all of these I find beautiful in their own regard). These people (J.C. Leyendecker, Mucha, etc.), and their modern counterparts, who I believe to be the likes of David Downton, Rene Gruau, and even at times James Jean, truly inspire my work. So on top of my original concept, I wanted to combine modern design idea with a semi-classic illustration aesthetic.

That being said, here's the final product:


As an artist, I think it's important to be able to have a voice. Artists are known for their recognizable styles and techniques. I think, however, it's important also to be able to break free from this mold when necessary. When conveying different subjects that have different meanings and different emotional packages associated with them, an artist will create a composition and drawing that suits this subject matter. However, there's also an additional tool set to further push these ideas that lies within the way the image itself is presented, both in style and technique. When this is successfully achieved, the technique and style used will push the piece further in the right direction. A painting that is tightly rendered will covey a very elegant and classical beauty, while a loosely rendered image with drips and splatters will associate with chaos and turmoil. These are two very simple examples out of an infinite selection of different techniques and styles to implement. I think, too, that even when different techniques are used, it is still very possible (and important) for the artist's recognizable voice to show through. This is something I'm exploring a lot in my work.

To make things more interesting, (and to use the two examples of beauty and chaos I mentioned previously), techniques and subject matter do not have to match. Gentileschi's 'Judith beheading Holofernes' is a beautifully rendered image with an incredibly chaotic subject. Call it subjective, but this image is a thing of beauty. The same applies to Caravaggio's painting of the same name. This idea is pretty simple and is really interesting to me to work with.

Anyway, these are some of the things I've been thinking about in my work over the past year. At this point, I'm actually not creating work with the idea of knowing something, but I'm creating work with the idea of thinking about something.