My work draws inspiration from the multitude of corky characters and funky forms produced in plastic toys. Most of the toys I choose to paint are products of packaged fast food meals for children found in thrift stores and yard sales. The paintings I create from these discarded playthings often fall into two polar oppositions: one being critical of our consumer society, the other being complicit to it. Colorful and glossy, I sometimes paint these small toys in densely packed piles that speak to me of mass consumerism, chaos and cultural vertigo. Other times, I isolate a special toy and focus on it endearingly while animating it in paint.
In addition, I am interested in depicting the plastic material of these toys. Introduced into this world about the same time I was born, plastic has proliferated in excess as I have aged. I consider it a substance relevant to my era and delineating its properties on canvas is my challenge as a contemporary painter. To this end, I paint directly from observation and I begin with acrylic paint to convey the toys’ bright plasticity. The pictures then proceed with coats of oil paint to render volume and form in the tradition of Flemish still life painting. In this manner, they reflect my ambivalent cultural makeup as an American artist who has adopted the European practice of oil painting in a Post-Modern plastic world.