"Prisoner" sketch, 1995

I was fascinated by my little “Prisoner” sketch tucked in a sketchbook from 1995- it’s exceedingly substandard in it’s execution, but the idea was great! The bisection of the incarcerated figure in place of a prison bar pattern across the foreground carried a lot of psychological heft- everyone has felt divided from time to time. Many years later I did an alternative version featuring a much more developed reworking of the idea- while bizarre, the drawing is technically superior to my initially hasty scrawl in marker over a decade prior, but I completely forgot the admirable simplicity of the original design, loading the re-imagined concept with very outwardly heavy emotion. The new drawing was honest, though the tears and blood were guilty of a blaring awkwardness that I’m certain polarized the work- “can’t you just paint some Pretty Pictures, Colin?” I’m a big fan of pretty art, and work hard at making some for the sheer joy of play, still the human condition catches my imagination from time to time, and I know that turns some folks off. While viewers are often escaping from the fray of their inner nature, I am instead closely inspecting it to free myself, sometimes painfully overexposing myself. I am often embarrassed when I look back on my catalogue, “Wow, did I really do that… for all to see?” -like the naked baby photo, I cringe slightly. I’m not sorry though -I make art for myself.

Early on in my development as an artist, confrontation of my identity was both eagerly tackled and fearlessly pursued like a challenge to fisticuffs- purposely provocative, a dare both to the viewer and myself. I would like to paint the prettiest daffodils that ever graced your living room and very well might, but occasionally fail to resist picking a fight instead. Too much skill/no concept in art makes me yawn; too much concept/not enough skill leaves me suspicious. I read once that Picasso argued art should be both inclusive to the enlightened and dangerous: “Art is never chaste. It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.” I like that, though Picasso was ultimately able to reach both the individual and most populist spark among mankind. And I want to break down the exclusivity of Art World in my work, hopefully while confounding and surprising us, too.