This piece made from hand cut stencils, aerosol paint, florescent paint, and glass shards, “Barn's Burnt Down” will be on display starting this Thursday at City Arts Factory's show in the Magic Gallery, “AQUA Exhibit: Central Florida Artists”. The image to the right shows the price of the 24” x 36” artwork. I wanted to communicate two concepts by pricing the work in this unconventional way. First, I invite the viewer to question the capitalism of art. Here, I ask the potential buyer to spend something potentially much more valuable: time and self reflection. It is true that I have no way of knowing whether or not any potential buyer actually fulfills the second obligation of the transaction. But this brings up the second point I wish to make: control. We wish to exert control over so many aspects of our lives, especially our interactions between each other. Were I to ask simply for American currency for this piece I couldn't control what the buyer did to earn that currency. Perhaps I disagreed with the means to that end. I wouldn't know that, either. “Barn's Burnt Down” is a piece that questions binaries and the judgement we place on the objects and interactions we come across: good, bad. But I also want this piece to serve a bit like a vanitas, not simply as a symbol of death or change, but the overarching invitation for the viewer to practice mindfulness and to search themselves for where they place a stranglehold on attempts of control. Surely there will be viewers who take offense to my price tag. But those people will never be open to my work. When you try to speak to everyone you end up speaking to no one. As an artist I task myself with jolting viewers and causing them to question what they take for granted while bearing witness to the times in which I find myself surviving daily. #spraypaintart #spraypaint #aerosol #aerosolpaint #aerosolpainting #skeleton #mooncycles #stencil #stencilart #stencilartwork #handcutstencil #handcutstencils #mushrooms #mushroomartworks #vanitas #control #lackofcontrol #conceptdriven #conceptdrivenart
