Artists as Agitators
“Any cupcake consumed before 9AM is, technically, a muffin.”
Artists are story tellers and observers. we live in a space of create however, so our outcomes are determinative. It is helpful to really think about what that could mean. Is the saying “life imitates art” or “art imitates life”? In reality, does it matter which? if you can dream it, it can become reality. If a reality needs to change, then create it so.
This piece was created but never shown with its thumb counterparts. because It was too “political”. At the time, I was painting all sorts of people in hats as thumbs, and the torture at Abu Ghraib prison was all over the news. It was a hat. I wasn’t opining about torture, I was just reporting it as real.
Marketing and censorship are evil cousins of sorts. Marketing is about framing audience perception. Censorship is about limiting it, but neither changes reality. Marketing acts to highlight it and censorship seeks to obfuscate it.
