Yumtastic!

My gestural approach to painting and sculpture contemplates the notion of guilty pleasure as it enters into the discourse of painting. Yumtastic! references reality television, and America’s sugar addiction. Celeb sightings including Zooey Deschenel and transgender entertainer Amanda Lepore, depicted in luscious oil paint struggling to keep from drowning in sugary surface oblivion.

Based on the original American lollipop used to pacify children, fresh resin Sugar Tits light up paintings that jump off the traditional surface into a world of cutout candy shapes for an overall sticky-sweet vibe. By emphasizing the artificial display of happiness with an over-the-top dripping spectacle of paint and sparkling resin, the work critiques the type of images that American viewers have become so attached. This inquiry into the power dynamics of grotesque performer and entertained audience questions the ethics of fascination.

"Yumtastic!" oil on canvas, 35x50" 2014

"Sugar Tits" resin, LEDs, ink, sparkles, dimensions variable 2014

"SUPAHero" oil on canvas 48x56" 2014

"Faboo Floaters" installation, oil on paper & board, holographic paper, 2014

"Don't Call Me Baby," oil on canvas 48x60" 2014

"Help Me, I'm a Pea Pod" oil on canvas, 38x54" 2014