"Tomorrow Ain't Promised To No One"

Apologies for the lax posting. I was in a Philly for a while and got a bit sidetracked.

Here's my latest painting. Aside from the undercoats, it was done in a two day marathon session (ah, deadlines).

Keema, 150 x 90 cm
Oil paint on canvas
Painted October 2009

The actual image is an appropriation of a still from the HBO show "The Wire" (good viewing, check it out). But the artistic inspiration behind this piece was Peter Doig's work -- and in particular, his painting "Grasshopper" [below]. Love that texture!


It's not necessarily evident in the above piece, but I love the way that Doig mutates pop-culture imagery beyond any kind of purely figurative reading. He robs the viewer of any context, instead relying on that mystery of place to create an atmosphere of cultural nostalgia. What happened right before this point in time? And just after? I also really like how he relies on body language rather than facial expressions, as well as how he'll often completely abandon his initial reference entirely. On a technical level, I love Doig's stubbornly horizontal brushstrokes. He typically employs a three-tiered set of bands in his work (as seen above) which is something that I tried to replicate (without making it too harshly evident).

I actually had a lot of fun painting this one despite the time crunch. Next up is a 4 x 5 foot canvas, oof.