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My Closet In a Plain Brown WrapperPost an Event »

Swarm Gallery

August 1 - September 1, 2008

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560 Second Street Oakland, CA 94607
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My Closet In a Plain Brown Wrapper
Artist Reception | Friday, August 1, 2008, 6-8PM Statement CLOS.ET - noun 1. A cabinet or enclosed recess for linens, household supplies, or clothing. 2. A water closet; a toilet. 3. A state of secrecy or cautious privacy PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER Once considered an embarrassment to shop for certain products and books at your local drug, discount store, or from the back pages of adult magazines, manufacturers and distributors offered discrete home delivery in plain brown packaging that came with no one the wiser about what's inside that ominous box. This project developed from my need to return to my drawing roots on a smaller scale, keeping the purity of select and basic materials. The subject matter evolved from my previous series of large oil paintings of a slight erotic nature showing men in various states of undress and self-pleasure. I found in painting the series that what captivated me most was the fabric, which to me often appeared more alive than the flesh. In my current work, I wanted to expand on the simplicity of the subject, deconstruction of form and topographical effect, which the eye pulls together into realism. The plain brown paper initially was in response to puritanical views of my erotic work. The question I posed to myself was - Could sexuality still be evident in the clothes we wear and the object we hold onto even if white-washed and "covered in plain brown wrapping"? A closet seemed to be the perfect home for drawings of wrinkled clothes and objects not normally hung from hangers. The closet and brown paper wrapping, a convenient metaphor for intentional order and purposeful disarray of secrets and memories.