ON POP ART: part 2

In my previous post on pop art I presented some ideas why I feel popular culture as an influence on art is valid and continues. I didn’t mean to present this as pop art is the only important art being done, just to present as still having a place and importance. Also while I myself use people from popular culture in my paintings I don’t really want to be pigeonholed as solely a pop artist. There is much to be explored beyond that. When I did a painting that featured an unrecognizable person, another artist said she particularly liked that painting because she didn’t recognize it as someone famous. I don’t really know why that is the case. A person is a person. When we look at a movie we don’t think I would like it better if I didn’t recognize the actors. I think a recognizable face brings a certain power with it. What we think about the person can affect what we think about the art. One of the premises of my work is that we decide how we feel about famous people by the parts they play, the songs they sing or what we read about them in the tabloids. We form opinions about people we never even met. When I was helping hang my exhibit in the @ Central Gallery at the Burton Barr Library a woman passing through looked at 2 paintings, one featured Paul McCartney the other Elizabeth Taylor. She said, “I love Paul, I hate Liz”, Proving my point. I’m sure she never met either of them.  I’m not beyond these judgments myself, so I cast people in my paintings so to speak by my own judgments or notions. Fame is also a transient thing. Our opinions about celebrities can change over time. Our opinions can change from hero to villain.  I also like to draw on themes and Subjects from art history for similar reasons. I’m drawn to artist’s work that deals with similar subjects, who draw on popular culture and art history. Many equate Pop Art with what Andy Warhol did and artists that mimic his style. But it can take in many styles. There are those who use the hard edged aproach of Warhol,  Roy Lichtenstine, and Robert Indiana, but there are those who are more painterly like Derick Boshier, James Rosenquist and Jim Dine. Then there are those who’s work borders on realism like Peter Phillips and Mel Ramos What really ties it together is it being influenced by advertising and popular culture more so than a way of working.