That was my favorite song!
THIS IS A 2-PART SHOWING of all 200 paintings and drawings on compact discs
plus the Mexico paintings (Proverbios y Dichos Mexicanos) and various linocuts.
Opening: Sunday FEB 8 from 3-6 pm
Music
By: ISINGLASS
Show: FEB 8-MARCH 15
Hot Monkey Love Cafe 5960 El Cajon Blvd. 619-582-5908
Opening: Friday FEB 13 from 7-9 pm
Catering
by Fountain Cafe and possible live acoustic music
Show: FEB 13-MARCH 7
Madstone Theater Hazard Center 7510 Hazard Center Dr. 619-299-4500
Artist Statement
I was a vinyl junkie.
In college I took a science and nature class (don’t let the name fool
you-it should have been called “radical vegetarian hippies who want
to run America”). Don’t get me wrong; I was an advocate of most
of their teachings, minus the dogma attached to it. I do remember giving a
presentation on how to recycle objects to use on a bicycle. Being that I hated
cds at the time, I intentionally used a Grateful Dead cd to show the class
how to make the perfect reflector. This bummed out several of my classmates.
That was the beginning of my war against the compact disc. Since then a truce
has been reached. Finding other uses for the cd has become a personal mission,
if not an obsession.
Thank god for America Online.
By the late ‘90s I had quite an AOL cd collection. I came to the crossroads
of either doing something with the cds or throwing them away. My intentions
were to find a way to put art on them. I attempted to use oil paints on the
first few but that failed...the paint never dried. I applied gesso to a few
more and used a marker to make contour drawings. Although I wasn't’t
convinced by the initial results, it was a start. I began experiment with
markers, watercolors and tempera paints. My cd art project was born.
I think you need therapy!
Taking the first 30 cds to art galleries in Atlanta was proof that I was in
need of mental help. My first stop was at a folk art gallery in Alpharetta
(a northern suburb). While the owner was flipping through the cds, she seemed
pretty bummed; asked me if I was OK; and inquired if I was going to commit
suicide. I laughed it off because I thought she was making a joke. She was
serious. She didn’t smile and she politely told me that my work wouldn’t
go over well at her place. I was surprised by her reaction. I told her that
I thought they were funny, tongue in cheek. I took them to a couple of other
galleries who pretty much had the same response and wanted to know the status
of my mental health.
At this point I was feeling that the project was fast becoming a failure.
I was initially excited because I was working with a new and interesting medium,
but mostly because I was painting again after a long hiatus. I was told by
one gallery to take them to a shop called Back To Square One, in Virginia
Highlands. There I met Judy, the owner. She was excited by the work. She instantly
got what I was saying with them. She said that my humor was dark and biting,
and she immediately bought 20. That was inspiration to continue the project.
Thanks Judy!
Brilliant, Pettibon, and Goya are my mentors.
I like Ashleigh Brilliant’s Pot Shots. He can put a lot of punch into
a phrase. When I was growing up, he was one of the comics I looked forward
to reading everyday when my dad brought home the newspaper from work. His
message in each panel bypasses the fluff in life and goes straight for the
jugular. He literally gets to the heart of the matter minus apologies.
Raymond Pettibon’s Black Flag and Minutemen album covers made a deep
impression in my psyche from the age of thirteen. His work spoke to me like
no other’s. Like Brilliant’s hit and run Pot Shots , Pettibon
takes a diversion into the absurd. His captions, alongside his bold and harsh
ink drawings, is like napalm on the human landscape. His work pays homage
to the Spanish artist, Francisco Goya.
I became familiar with Goya during my late teens. Once I learned about his
Los Caprichos, Los Desastres de la Guerra, Los Disparates, etching series,
I realized he was the master of summing up an image in just a few words. If
Brilliant and Pettibon are the masters of prose, then Goya is the master of
haiku. His simplicity speaks volumes, while his apocalyptic images haunt you.
Boring meetings and dysfunctional relationships…thank you.
I hate meetings. I don’t have the attention span for them. Before I
started drawing on cds, I was making contour face drawings with captions on
the back of handouts and other important papers. Most of the time, captions
came from a word or a phrase a person would say during a meeting. I would
often attempt to draw people sitting across from me, and then use a line that
another person said to then make up my own phrase. This was the precursor.
The cds are a mirror to what I experience and feel in day-to-day life. They
are somewhat of a visual diary-many attempts to address my unresolved issues
revolving around interpersonal relationships and life in general. I often
feel like my characters are saying what we would really like to say, but are
afraid to. Some are intentionally passive, while at other times, painfully
honest all the way to outright confrontational.
Scribbled words on receipts, paper bags, paycheck stubs etc.
I have drawings and ideas for my cds almost everywhere. They are in my desk
at work, in the glove compartment of my truck, on napkins, on invoices, telephone
books and so on. I have enough drawings to fill these walls three times over.
Some of the best work is still on paper shoved in my wallet or on the back
of a check from breakfast in a Denny’s in Yuma. I felt that after making
close to 250 cds this would be a good point to share them with the public.
What you are looking at has been a project in the works since 2001. Thank
you for taking the time to check them out.
Bob Rob (Medina)
February 2004
Below are a few images from the show...please click to enlarge.
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