I am still figuring my current body of work concerning MM, and this site is a great way to help verbalize and explore it. I thought I’d post my artist’s statement that served as the catalyst for my now intense Marilyn interest.
“Growing up, I used celebrity as an escape from dealing with the loss and mourning of recently passed-on family members. Not only did television, film, and celebrity culture serve as an escape at the time, but also loosely guided me through this turbulent period of my life. In a sense, celebrity served as ‘distanced parents’ to me, ones that I didn’t have to fear of losing. They were fabulously preserved in papers, magazines, and shiny moving images on screens. As actual people, these celebrities were no more real or fake than the people in my life that have passed on.
As years passed, I went back to immersing myself in celebrity culture, but in an investigative and nostalgic sense. The early stars of the silver screen in particular brought me a sense of comfort and identification. These stars also are physically deceased, yet there are thousands of images and sound bites of theirs preserved.
One of the particular icons I investigated was that of Marilyn Monroe, a figure that has become so engrained in pop culture that the actual person has become lost amongst the great public. Before Pop Art was launched, Marilyn was a contemporary sex and movie icon. During Pop Art, Marilyn’s role as an icon shifted into that of commodity and art, and into the painting world. After Pop Art, while some artists occasionally still continue to tackle her as subject matter here and there, for the most part photography and commodity is what remains. If you can name it, most likely Marilyn’s image and or name has been branded onto it.
Other celebrities’ images I dealt with were that of Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Cary Grant, each one dealt with aging publicly in a different manner. Judy Garland died at a low point from a drug overdose, looking worn and haggard. Joan Crawford left the public eye at the start of her decline to try to preserve some of her image, as well as dignity. Cary Grant did neither, he just left us with his image of the ideal male, and vacated from that image from the side door
All of these people are indeed just people, but people that have left a dent on pop culture well after their deaths. They are all still look, thought, and talked about today, yet the gap between their lives, and our post-mortem perception of them is left unacknowledged. With my thesis work, through a series of drawings, paintings, and research I sought to expand upon the question of this gap, and fill in some of that missing dialogue.”
More to come..but trying to partially use this blog to help out with some cohesion.
