|
My work embodies a place where thoughts and ideas are tentative, worked out, where the process of thinking is exposed rather than resolved. In fact, what got me interested in the grids was coming across the term “monkey mind” in my reading; implying a jumping around from thought to thought rather than staying calm and focused, a term that I thought described me perfectly. Why not turn a negative into a positive? I start each painting by producing the grid, then paint one image on it and see where it leads—in a kind of metonymic slide—one image suggesting another, then another and so on. |
 |
Vernon Fisher
My work embodies a place where thoughts and ideas are tentative, worked out, where the process of thinking is exposed rather than resolved. In fact, what got me interested in the grids was coming across the term “monkey mind” in my reading; implying a jumping around from thought to thought rather than staying calm and focused, a term that I thought described me perfectly. Why not turn a negative into a positive?
I start each painting by producing the grid, then paint one image on it and see where it leads—in a kind of metonymic slide—one image suggesting another, then another and so on. In Animal, there’s a straightforward painting of a lion; anthropomorphized cartoon animals (Mickey and derivatives), a chimp smoking like Cary Grant, cartoon Mickeys begging for mercy in a pool of tears, cartoon Mickey hungover, sitting on toilet and so on—all very silly, I guess. But, there’s something interesting about the way it looks and holds together—I think—I hope. In any case, I get to paint a lot of different images with a lot of different approaches.
Disconsolate Pairs has pairs of unhappy people: on the right, Sterling Hayden and Paul Newman, both in undershirts; upper left, Marlon Brando from Streetcar paired with Mickey in same pose; middle, two Patty Hearsts opposite two John Dahls (from Gun Crazy); Laurie Anderson smoking a cigarette paired with Nancy doing the same (similar haircut too); and Nancy and Sluggo at bottom.
Other paintings are The Path to Enlightenment—children in Dick and Jane style, banging themselves on the heads with frying pans, sublime landscapes; The Raw and the Cooked—Tarzan, white hunters, natives, a Raphael portrait, Fred Astaire; Innocence and Terror (final title pending)–landscapes, Osama Bin Laden, multiple cartoon characters, etc.
