Monday, July 10, 2017

Art Gallery: My Picnic Was Hijacked by the Ant Hill Mob



My Picnic Was Hijacked by the Ant Hill Mob (2000)
B-Side (2000)
Watercolors and correction fluid on canvas, 18" x 24"

This has always been one of my favorites from the Watercanvas series. It features multiple layers of paints and correction fluid, usually in thicker amounts. You can see solid chunks of paint on the canvas. Notice, also, how the correction fluid appears differently than in other paintings. This is because I used the "Liquid Paper" brand for this painting, instead of the Kinko's brand that I normally relied upon. This brand was less water soluble, which results in different patterns. It doesn't mix very well, nor does it streak when throwing the bottle. This makes it much less suitable for Jackson Pollack-style "action painting."

Here are my 2003 notes from my old arts website:

"This is another one of those goofy, clever titles from back when I was listening to a lot of Frank Zappa records. There was a six month period where I completely devoured half the Zappa catalogue; and then I almost completely dropped it. I usually do that with music, moving from one new find to the next. That teenage thrill of discovery is still in my blood; it should be that way with everyone, and the fact that it isn't is among life's great tragedies.

"The Ant-Hill Mob is, of course, from Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Wacky Races and All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. Am I spelling that right?

"Now, there has to be a ton of paint on the canvas. You can see where I applied the tube paints directly, without any dilution in water. I wanted a really rough, mountainous texture; remember that I'm still learning this whole thing as I'm going. And the b-side is interesting, too. There are some small scribbles that I treated like small drawings (like bubblegum baseball cards); what you see here truly betrays the influence graffiti art has had on me. And, surprise, there's a picture of me at the bottom, from one of those cheap photo booths that are nowhere to be found in Minneapolis for some reason."

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