Andy, do my feet stink?

Two pop icons, side by side...multiple Andys in the background, looking skeptical at the nude and vivacious Marilyn...do your feet really stink Marilyn? I am dead and cannot answer that question, but if I COULD....I would definitely, comment on such a thing, he is Andy Warhol, the artist who reflects almost exclusively on the mundane...

I like the wallpaper like quality of the Andys...much like the cow and Mao wallpaper of the past...Lindsey Kuhn does a great job of capturing the conceptual spirit of the pop movement...Marilyn is graphical in nature, commercial in application, yet her foreshortened body is so Renaissance! And the feet in our face like an exaggerated Mantegna painting of the dead Christ...her blue skin, glowing like a comical, re-treaded, vintage Star Trek alien...so beautiful and smelly!

The placement of the figure, off to the right and balanced by the hard edges of the square portraits...this piece has the heart of the pop movement and ironic soul of the cynical now...

What is hidden and what is shown?

It's like a modern day Garden of Delights by Bosch...with a pinch of David Salle thrown in for flaaavar...The arrangement is as if they were all in the same room for a spontaneous erotic party...the characters in the foreground seem to be having a good time partaking in a little spanky, spanky...and the green, ghost like outlined form (reference to David Salle) is eyeing the scene with precision...these participants are all at the same scale...smaller in proportion to the remaining picture plane...

The sitting figures in the background are giants in comparison, cut off from the foreground by the dark line created by the bottom of the sofa...the "shadow boy" in the middle is reading, unaffected by the humorous erotica happening in front of them...maybe these characters are play things for a land of giants? We do not see expressions from the adults in the room, so maybe they are watching intently, this odd sexual play by Hieronymus???

The Hidden by Vincent Hui is a successful narrative, conveying two separate scenes, connected by space...the unusual use of value and shadow enhances the narrative and builds the drama of this creative image...the play on scale divides the picture plane but because they all exist in the same room they are relating, even if by ignorance of presence...

Graphical balance

Movement from left to right...the fist moving in on the viewer and the tooth moving away, out of the picture plane...These two white objects come together conceptually, as human components and visually, as black, white and gray cut out objects...The black stripe, of a specific scale, placed in the the bottom third of the vertical picture plane...not in the center, but forcing the artist to balance the asymmetry...the black splits the blue background and images residing on top of the surface...this piece is very graphic, with simple line work and minimal color...

Minimal value and a clean background with little variation creates a commercial feel, referencing historically the graphics genre...I enjoy the simplicity of the overall composition - red, blue, white, black and grays are the only colors, tints and tones...each color and value is repeated above and below the line, in different scale, unique form and with marks made in variation...each side of the black line has elements referencing and connecting to each other...graphics in balance

J.J. Cromer - Enjoy the Savings

Repetition of forms, unified in purpose...figurative, tooth like forms...visually, we group similar shaped items into one unit, a device to create overall cohesion throughout the picture plane...variation is key to have both interest and unity...the large, red figurative element is the main character, largest in scale compared to the other white figures...combined with the unique red color, covering a large area...this element becomes central to the composition...the fact that this red form is off the left, it forces a need to create balance on the right side for the overall picture plane...

A third color, blue is introduced on the right hand side to create unique visual interest...in addition, the shape and scale is a new character in the story...this is key in balancing the red and larger scale on the left...the touches of red an blue throughout the rectangle binds the piece together...when you look closer, you realize that it is really the same organic form over and over...even the blue shapes come from the interior arch form, articulated in between the legs of the tooth like figure...variation and unity...beautifully simple and at the same time, decoratively complex...

St. Bozo Assemblage

This symmetrical composition is in the context of traditional, religious works...where there is a strong, dominant figurative element in the middle...there is something interesting visual and conceptual here in this artistic act of re-constitution...taking the familiar and putting it back together in an unusual, sophisticated way...it can take the ordinary and transform it into something deeper and unique...running parallel to the idea of the alchemist, the magician who transforms everyday metals into gold, making the resulting product precious...

St. Bozo by Nick Bubush, pinches us into the center through concentrated color, the neutrals reside on the outside, like two slices of bread surrounding a luscious, religious "peace" of meat...as a viewer I want to reach out and play with all the parts, turning and twisting them to experience something spiritual...an active participant on a religious journey...a comical and tongue-in-cheek experience, but who says humor cannot be spiritual???