More Non-Skeletons (NSFW)

I found more bad art from my youth in the basement today, here it is. If you saw my last blog post, I've been undertaking a wee bit of a salvage/restoration project with several boxes of artwork that I had done over the course of approximately a decade. The earliest pieces that I have go back to 1998 and the most recent date I've thus far been able to track is late 2008. A LOT of old stuff was ruined by mold and improper storage over the years, but most of that was crap anyway.

Well, as promised, here's some more visual self-humiliation...

This one goes back to 2000, the year I graduated High School. 

THIS was around the time I was not only having some serious cognitive dissonance between Christianity and my own doubts, but trying to get a sense of how to formulate opinions on (then) current events. Originally, the giant clock-eyed monster was supposed to be urinating on little Elian Gonzales beneath him, but my mom was getting really freaked out that I was painting so much work bearing a rather ... well, prominent feature. I guess I never really got around to properly finishing it, but I think there's some pretty decent (though heavily dogmatized) symbolism in here... 

1) I've never trusted cops, still don't. I have issues with "authority figures" to begin with, so I'm attributing this to youthful rebellion. 2) Yes, that's a nuclear church. Interpret that however you like, but I think at the time I had an obsession with the apocalypse. 3) I blame drugs for this thing.

I guess if you really honestly think that your god is about to end it's creation and everything in it, to include YOU regardless of how faithful you are to it's cause, it kinda sparks a fucked up fire in your brain: Dude, I'm on your side! If you love me so much then why do you want to destroy everything you made for me? 

I gave Jesus the boot within a year after this painting. Moving on...

Yes, these were originally part of a series I was putting together. Out of 12 originals, THESE are the only ones that survived repeated flooding in my parents' basement.

Christian obsession with government "persecution and corruption" is nothing new, as you can see by the date on these (2000) and STILL just as asinine as it was back in those days. Of course our government has cracks and stains from corruption and scandal, show me ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT that doesn't! But I was 19, I thought I knew it all because my Pastors and Bible Studies were telling me so... I kinda found out the hard way not long later that the world was a very different place than what I had been told.

Ooh, I hope you're ready for this ... 

Yes, that is exactly what it looks like: Hermaphrodite Corsetry/Bondage, acrylic on canvas-board. 

I'd like to remind you, dear reader, that at NO POINT in this blog did I make any claim to sanity or normalcy: Normal is for bitches, and if art never crosses any lines then it has no purpose. That having been said, this one surprised even me: I don't even remember painting it. I think I was still living in Portland (The REAL Portland, not that fake one over in Oregon.) 

I don't expect people to like my work, regardless of the subject matter. Finding these things and documenting them has been a bit of a shock even for me, this is actually a tad embarrassing for me personally. Each piece I find is a bit like a bad drinking story, feelings of "I can't believe I thought that was a good idea" flood my mind every time I look at them. But at the same time I can only really be honest with myself, even greats like Salvador Dali made some pretty bad art in the days their youth (his earliest works were actually incredibly boring compared to later melting clocks and burning giraffes.) 

And yes, as I FIND more I will be happy to POST more: Some of this stuff is actually really good, at least I think so.

More to come in the future, folks.