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As a satirical, new media cartoonist/poet working three
dimensionally, I use multiples, art objects, text, and performances
to create a rich, quirky cartoon universe in which time travel
is commonplace and artists function as part-time superheroes.
Much in the same manner as "The Simpsons" or
"The Flintstones" offer a collection of characters
that coalesce as a satirical mirror of society, I repackage
the world as an "alternate reality". This fictional
world I create provides a backdrop on which I can employ
popular narrative strategies and mass media techniques to
explore, deconstruct and decode social behavior, historical
assumptions, cultural stereotypes, and gender relations.
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Grassroots, self-published ephemera such as comic books, postcards,
music CD’s, posters, bubblegum cards and installations serve
as physical manifestations of the Cobaltian worldview. My site-specific,
didactic, and semi-disposable art works are constructed with offbeat
materials such as shag rugs, cheap Polaroid photos, fruit,
underwear, old tape recorders, and colored cellophane.
Visual presentations are often accompanied by live musical
events and/or a CD soundtrack/concept
album of thematically related songs. All of my elements in my
exhibitions suggests larger narrative story arcs that need the
imagination of the viewer to complete.
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I often work with a series of
collaborators including artists, models, photographers, actors and
musicians; as such, many of the works I produce are actually
executed by a collective, using the "rock band" as a
paradigm. Both my collaborators and myself adopt a variety of
fictional identities within the work to help enhance the
fictional world we create. Some of the characters I have
portrayed include: a rock
critic named Michael Brogan, a poet named Wayne Russell, an
obnoxious singer named El Maximo, and a time traveler known as
Cobalt. Participation from the viewer/audience via live
events or process related interaction is also intrinsic to
many Cobaltian projects; this brings the audience directly
into contact with the invented Cobaltian world. Final products often involve listening to
real-time audio elements or require actual handling of the piece in
order to be fully experienced.
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Current projects are described in my Project Room.
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Though artistically satisfying and extremely varied, my body
of work has been difficult to translate into commodities that
are conducive to traditional "art world" venues. My
work has also been too eccentric to be fully embraced by
mainstream pop culture outlets. I am as unlikely to be embraced
by a gallery as I am to be signed by a major record label. My
greatest challenge as an artist is to find a niche, (and
avenue for expression) that allows my work to strike a balance
between the values of "high art" and
"lowbrow" pop culture. In order for me to find that
niche, it is now necessary for me to set up headquarters outside
of time and space, and draft a detailed plan that may or may not
include world domination.
