Fun House Fever (from the early work archive)

This one’s a good mix of horror, sci-fi, Francis Bacon, Expressionism and an obvious nod to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” in particular (though that has never been one of my favorite paintings). This is one of a series of a dozen 3X4′ acrylic paintings I did when I was in my early 20s.

I did all of them with the same method, which was to brush on burnt umber and white paint, and  then just look at it for images to appear. I’d flip the canvas over, brush some more, and so on. I’d realize the image to a certain point with brown and white, then I’d add color over that. I never knew what I would end up with when I started.

There is a corpse, or person in some abysmal form of suspended animation in the upright cylinder on the right. The menacing red person in the back is operating a saw, the teeth of which are covered in blood. which is also being flung into the air. The white figure, which is most Munch-like, is a painting within a painting, because it’s painted on the vertical side of the case of the saw. The figure in front is covering his or her ears, which may have been cut off. It’s a bit gruesome.

The painting technique involved multiplied layers of washes, splashing on the paint, daubing it on, and scraping it or sanding it off. I always had a hair drying handy to facilitate quick drying. You can see the evidence of the process of the painting in the details below.

Check out the new section that contains my early work, all of which is for sale: Early Work.