Sir Bruce the Beetle: A particular kind of success

My upcoming show at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, VA is billed as a collected work of self-portraiture. By way of preview (though I discussed this in my previous post about titles), each work is accompanied by a title in two parts: a descriptive or narrative title accompanied by a mood or personality trait in parentheses. As a collection, the works begin to tell the story of who I am as illustrations of discrete parts of my being.

In the introduction of How to See, David Salle notes there is often a disconnect between a work’s stated intention and its resonance. In the realm of non-mimetic portraiture, this disconnect can leave those in the art world speaking in tongues while the general viewer is left vaguely perplexed. As a matter of ego and a matter of earnestness, I sincerely hope to avoid this in my work in general and this body of work in particular.

So you can imagine my overwhelming relief (and excitement) when at a recent community fair, a woman stopped by to view my work, laughed, and then excitedly exclaimed of one bug available for sale, “I make that face every day when I sit down at my desk and start my work.” She got it. The piece wasn’t about the beetles’ form or the palette selected (I’ll note that while this guy was just a small 11x14 done on sketchbook paper one day, the colors and the likeness were both quite nice). It was about the character of the bug – a mood – a moment of steeling oneself against the day. She got it.