Due to the aforementioned reasons, for a while I could not pay much attention to Pop Art.  I’d fine it aesthetically pleasing, but after seeing endless Warhol prints on just about anything, it becomes hard to look at it objectively.  I avoided an in depth look at pop art for some time, but my current bodies of work have forced me to change this stance.

Warhol's Marilyns

There’s the blatantly obvious, Marilyn Monroe.  Warhol’s portraits of Monroe, along with Jackie Kennedy, Judy Garland, and other tragic golden ladies,  allude to the pain and identification with the individuals, but with a firm level of removal.  It’s not exactly easy to put oneself in the same category as Marilyn Monroe etc, despite the humanity of these icons.  They are still icons, unattainable but we are still able to project our own associations.

Roy Lichtenstein’s Crying Girls series is drawn from distressed females in comics books,  thus making the pain of these both anonymous and universal.  Lichtenstein paints these modified comic panel pieces as individual images, and by taking out of the context he changes the meaning.  We are given very select clues on how and why these ladies are distressed.   Richard Prince demonstrated this point with his artist book, pairing up Lichtenstein’s girls with pulp-lady novel covers, completely redirecting the interpretation of said images even more.

With my Beverly Hills, 90210/Teen Trauma body of work, I am finding myself straddled between these two ends of the spectrum.  Brenda Walsh is a fictional tv character, yet the actress and the show are fairly recognizable.  At least, to the general public more identifiable than the specific ladies of Lichtenstein, but no where as epically recognizable as Jackie Kennedy or Marilyn Monroe. While most of can identify with some Monroean tragedy, distraught comic beautiful blonds, but it is Brenda Walsh that we see ourselves in.  She’s imperfect, she’s loved, she’s hated.  We can relive her ups and downs, break-ups and betrayals…..and she cries enough about life for all of us.   Brenda Walsh’s pain is our modern middle ground.

Brenda Walsh

(Also, just for fun. Let’s look at Britney Spears shaving her head again. )

(*Image courtesy of theCW & Ed-Westwick.org)

Much of the glory of the Gossip Girl characters (as well as in the real-life New York social circle counterparts) relies on prestigious family names. Whitneys, Waldorfs, Vanderbilts, but the name that comes out of the mouths of Manhattans young elite with the most impact is short and not so sweet. Chuck. Bass.  It is also a name that is neither in the historical repertoire of actual New York and Gossip Girl New York.

In the TV series Chuck’s father, Bartholomew Bass is a highly successful American businessman; an entrepreneur that made a name for himself. Chuck is of the first member of his family to be born into wealth, and Bass only recently become an enviable name on the social registrar.  Yet Chuck Bass’s pride of this family entitlement, achievement, and image is infinitely stronger than any of his peers.  He is knows and takes every advantage he has been given, and uses them for better or for worse.

Chuck Bass knows how to make an entrance.  He knows how to manipulate. He knows how to make both his presence and his identity known.  His peers are generations removed from their family name makers; they are so used to entitlement that they don’t even fully realize the amount of power and privilege they have.

People at times wonder the enjoyment and obsession with a wealth-centric show like Gossip Girl.   Don’t you get jealous? Don’t you find it isolating? What’s so interesting about rich people?  Following the lives & scandals of the elite Manhattan families in Gossip Girl isn’t necessarily a trite, useless, and dangerous activity.  It’s understanding the modernization of America’s gilded history & gossip but through a hip savvy perspective of our current communication technology that most of us can relate to.

Outsider Access. The Manhattan "Outcast", Brooklyn-born Dan Humphrey.

Gossip has been around since practically the dawn of civilization.  The higher up on the social ladder the better, more coveted and juicier the gossip is.  It can still be hard to comprehend the social age we are currently in.  Who would have thought could execute social digital ‘blast’ of gossip to countless people within seconds.  Whispers of scandals between friends may never die down, but our current ability to almost instantly ruin a person’s reputation is virtually unprecedented.  Chuck Bass knows how fickle, fast-paced and powerful this system is.  For Chuck Bass, it’s not enough to be aware of this dynamic, but embody it.  Why else would he say “I’m Chuck Bass” so frequently, and with such conviction?

Blair Waldorf & Chuck Bass. (Image courtesy of Ed-Westwick.org & The CW)

With my post-death images of silver screen stars thesis project, I got sucked into research, and epically so.  It’s hard to ignore Marilyn Monroe with that subject matter, and unfortunately or fortunately, with art I am not someone who can jut gloss over something. When so many tackle her only on the surface, I decided if I was going to deal with her…I was going to it right.  So….60+ Marilyn books later (I started to lose count), and I am just starting to get a hook on her.  Dead people can be crazy confusing, but it’s fascinating how you can build a connection with someone post-mortem.  Digressing.  In my free time I am still occasionally working on the project.  I have the goal of it all coming into fruitation for the 50^th anniversary of her death in summer of 2012.  I like having symbolic dates, it’s how I get shit done.

Like the 90210 show, on…9/02/10.  It’s rockin.  It’s closer.  I am going hardcore.  I have watched all 10 seasons of Beverly Hills 90210 ore than once. I have hundreds of screen caps.  I have a critical theory book on the tv show.  I am getting my professional academic friend to make a pop culture and trauma/teens reading list for me.  I have expanded to analyzing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, new 90210, and My So Called Life. I started Freaks & Geeks, and thought about Dawson’s Creek, but I decided I needed to cap it there. Priorities!!  Enough is enough, and I have enough.  I tend to enjoy overloading my brain with more than enough information, and eventually wading through it to create something poignant…hopefully.  There comes a time when you just don’t need anymore, where you just work with what you have, and fill in any gaps that might come up.  If you were to add up the amount of hours of teen tv I have been watching and overanalyzing, I think it would spell “STOP”.

John Waters’ recent promotion for his new book Role Models has made me full on adore the man.  In the past week, I have read two books of his, and rewatched two of his films.  In one of his books, he is asked if he has any hobbies. He replies “Do I look like someone who has hobbies? I have obsessions”. I hear that John.

…and look at the large and brilliant body of work he has.  I think I’ve decided that it’s fine to obsess, if you possess it (and not vice versa) & you create with it.

You seem a lot less crazy if you make paintings of Shannen Doherty, rather than just have a studio wall of her

Brenda Walsh is Crying, Once More! Mixed Media. 7/2010

Crying affects all of our lives.   Whether its around you, or it’s your own self…you can’t ignore the cry.  Sure, you can repress it.  Sure, you can fake it, but most of the time..you can’t control it.  Unless of course you are an actor, and more importantly, an actor in a teen TV show.  In that case, you are a pro.

I don’t think anyone cries more than the characters in teen TV soaps/dramas.  Whether their lives are actually dramatic (Beverly Hills, 90210, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or they just teen-perspective dramatic (My So-Called Life)…there’s always the drama…and with the drama, come the tears.  Teens are in transitions with everything, and crying certainly is one of them.  They are no longer ‘children’ that are somewhat oblivious to crying etiquette, and not quite adults who are aware of the social role of crying, and have that structure embedded in their systems.

There is a freedom in crying as a teen.  You know more about what is worth crying about.  You also know more about how crying affects other people, you know how to work it, and you have the freedom to get away with  not caring when its ‘inappropriate’.  You are still, ‘just a kid’, but you have those pesky ‘adult’ (seeming) problems.   You are totally free to cry over being stood up on a date like half your family was murdered.  That’s power.    Teen crying is epic, so no wonder TV producers love it so damn much.

Ode to awesome teen tv crying take 1 : Beverly Hills 90210

So my Beverly Hills, 90210: Teen Pop Culture & Trauma series is finally getting underway.  This is my first body of work I am premiering in Boston.  I have a lot of work ahead of me. My drawing/paintings skills are definitely rusty, and it will take a lot of work to churn out images of the quality I want. This is perfect, because this is a body of work I am insanely passionate about doing…which exactly the kick I needed to get my art game back on.

As a teen, my favorite TV shows had a huge impact on my life.  When my life unlike that of my surrounding peers, I was able to connect with them week to week on relating to our favorite shows.  The shows also worked as an escape, and as friend.  For me, it was Buffy Summers, always feeling like the world was going to end, or someone might die.  This TV show of vampires and teenage heroines felt more like my life/what I was feeling than anything else around me.  Also, those undead metaphors made it easier for me to deal with the actual dead…but let’s not go into vampire studies now.

I was too young to be of the original Beverly Hills, 90210 generation. The show’s lifespan was the entire decade of the ’90s. The show has now recently been syndicated for SoapNet, where at any given day the show airs not once, not twice, but four times.  Also, don’t forget the CW’s new version, 90210 reaching out to a new generation of fans, while still featuring a few of the original’s iconic characters.  For a few overlapping generations in the U.S, it’s very difficult for someone not to have an opinion on this show.

Beverly Hills, 90210 was the first U.S. soap opera specifically aimed at teens.  It straddled chronicling the epically dramatic relationships and friendships of the cast, along with topical teen issues.  Any sort of problem or lesson tended to be solved in an episode.  No matter what, these privileged teens prevailed against their trials and tribulations.  Things always end up okay, at least for the main characters.  The candy-coated nature of the show makes difficult issues digestible.  You end up seeing the Beverly Hills, 90210 version of life’s difficulties. ….and it’s ridiculous.  Yet your brain prefers the ridiculous and the colorful over the cruel and painful. So does the American public.

Why else would we love seeing Brenda/Shannen Doherty cry so much?  We love to see her cry, and for our own reasons, we need it.  We need our hollywood versions of teen pain.  So, it’s time for some paintings of this. Cry Brenda Cry!

So here’s a recent .

Golden Globes

It's Brandon Walsh!

Click on the GIF if it doesn’t seem to be moving.

We know the basics of the story.  Jackie Kennedy (& that Bostonian husband of hers) changed the face of the White House and America’s image in the early 1960s.  In 1962, Jackie’s infamous televised broadcast A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F Kennedy aired internationally…and impacted  generations globally within their very own homes.  With it’s initial airing, 56 million American’s tuned in to see the stylish First Lady give a public tour of her private/public home/museum.   In addition, the tour was then syndicated to over 50 countries.  Jackie revamped how we see our country,our history, the role of First Lady, as well as the changing role of women in the private and public spheres.

In 2008, “A Tour of the White House” came back into the homes and TVs of Americans once more,…. as well as through computers, dvd players and probably some ipods.  This time is wasn’t the full hour-long broadcast, but clips via the characters’ TVs of AMC’s hit series Mad Men.  We see Sal, closet gay ad artman, watching the tour with his wife while quietly sitting on their couch.  Meanwhile Joan, the saucy Monroe-Jackie combo, is attempting to watch the tour while engaging in a steamy make-out session with her beau.  The show’s main couple, Betty & Don have a failed lovemaking attempt on Valentines day. After they give up, they order room service and watch the Kennedy White House tour from the bed of their hotel room. We see these various couples’ degrees of sex and lack there of, intertwined together by the fact that Jacqueline Kennedy is giving a tour of the White House on all of their TV sets.

Sal & His Wife, Mad Men Season 2

If 3/4 of the country was watching this broadcast in 62, then Mad Men is pretty dead on with the fact that Joan, Betty & Don, Sal & his wife all probably would have been watching Ms Kennedy.  Sure, we’ve got that other 1/4…but those were probably just the characters we didn’t see.  Now thanks to Mad Men, the broadcast familiar once more, but with younger generations.  Folks who didn’t get to watch the original broadcast when it aired (for whatever reasons, such as…not being born) now watched the characters watch and react to this iconic broadcast.  Folks who did watch the original broadcast, now relived a moment in ’62 that they all connected to.

The Drapers

Joan & Her New Beau

In 2010, it’s impossible for one form of media to have as a great impact as specific televised broadcasts had when Mrs. Kennedy was First Lady.    Three damn quarters of the country…using the same appliance, at the same time, watching the same formal televised broadcast.  It wasn’t because it was a national state of emergency, or the end of a pivotal presidential election.  It also wasn’t a scandalous interview with one of the worlds most iconic and reclusive pop stars.   It was a beautiful yet quirky, elegant yet mechanical well-bred woman from the New England/New York social circles, giving the interviewer, the camera, and the country a formal tour of her home/museum/ideal image.

I did a couple of performances recently for the first time in ages. I  am getting my Beverly Hills, 90210 body of work rolling, and along with it comes a cultural fascination with TV.  I really haven’t done much performance in a gallery type setting, and finally had some opportunities to try it out.  Q: Why the media of performance? A: Because other medias aren’t as applicable for conveying the desired result.  The Kennedy White House Tour, as it existed in 1962 is clearly impossible almost 40 years later. We have too many forms of media, outlets, and accessible information as a whole.  So why not just avoid the media battle, and give the White House Tour as Jackie herself?  Maybe by having an interactive, one-on-one personal encounter with the Mrs. Kennedy and her tour of the White House….Mrs. Kennedy’s White House tour can still make a lasting impact on people’s cluttered memories.

@ the Cannytrophic Design Expo 2010, courtesy of Stripy Cat

At the Cannytrophic Design Expo earlier this year, I tried to put this into practice. I was Jackie.  I had my Mid-restoration White House.  I had my objects to show.  Sometimes I had tours. A lot of the time people kept walking. …and then after 6 hours Jackie got tired.   Clearly, it is not 1962…but at least these folks will probably remember that quirky Jackie trying to give some Whitehouse Tours in the corner of a gallery.

From the release:
“Studio 11 – A Retrospective” is a group exhibit featuring works by current and former inhabitants of the famed and fabled five-story loft which anchors the northeast tip of The Distillery. Show runs from April 29th – June 1, 2010. Opening reception April 29th, 6-9pm, free & open to the public.

Exhibiting artists include: Dara Backaler, Fiona Bank, Tony Bevilacqua, H. Boney, Gregory Crist, Michael Dacey, Robert daVies, Jon Demiglio, Nicole Deponte, Alex Feinstein, Elizabeth Grammaticas, Mary Walker Graham, Tricia Gray, Mary Fay Holt, Dynamo Jenkins, Maria LaCreta, Nick Rodrigues, Tyler Rowland, Necole Schmitz, Nick Ward, James Weinberg, and more TBA…

http://www.gallery.distilleryboston.com