The latest series of paintings puts a twist on the traditional
depictions of 'man as soldier'. The anachronistic helmet, first off,
distances the subjects from the present day... keeping the paintings
from being viewed as an overtly political statement on a specific
topic but instead hopefully opening a window onto a kind of reverie,
both for the viewer and the figures in the paintings, where the
soldiers are not shown fighting but dreaming and loving.
"The Rectifier" subverts the celebration of male aggression
altogether. The piece collapses many arenas of idealized male heroism
on top of each other, the 'western', the comic book superhero, the
samurai, even the van gogh-esque sky which references that artist who
embodies the romanitic 'ideal' as it also depicts the swirling smoke
of the aftermath of some disaster or battle.
However, the protagonist is denied his act of war/glory by the
composition of the piece, which crops out the implied action taking
place in front of the figure, almost as if a camera has been panned
up.
The images are created by wetting the raw (unprimed) canvas and
staining it with paint. The effect is one of melancholic, gentle
bleeding.