All great artists display rage. They become "Sacred Monsters", and aspire to be "Outlaw Gods". These are some of words that Jerry Saltz, one of today's most influential critics, uses to describe Francis Bacon in an article in New York magazine. The article overviews Bacon's retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009 (The most inspiring and horrifying exhibitions I have ever seen). Satlz asks "was Bacon the really the greatest painter of all the twentieth century, or just a fascinating mess?" I'm not going to get too much into the article but all artists can aske themselves this question. I've always related to Bacon in my paintings and how he might percieve raw human nature as a metaphore for art. There is something self-destructive about our nature that I like to embrace sometimes. Comedy and Tragety. The curiosity to be more than who we are will kill us in the most poetic ways. I've always tried to define what raw beauty is in my paintings and find that the darker and more weird my work goes, the closer I get to the root of it. I hate the fact that I have older paintings and drawings in my studio that still exist as they taunt me of who I was. That person is not here anymore so in one way my works constantly not just document my life but remind me of moments I've lost. As dark as that sounds I embrace the power that art has on an individuals Psyche...I did series called "Happy Endings", which reflected on the beauty of self destruction and regeneration. All the pieces were painted in Red which reflects the urgency in our human nature to prosper and destroy. In this article I posted some examples of these paintings as well as some of my favorite Bacon paintings.
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