In February 2005 the Clowns in Love exhibit was held at the
Jigsaw Gallery near Tompkins Square Park in New York City.
Most of the works were acrylic on cardboard, especially pizza
boxes from Spinelli's. For more info
about the exhibit, click here.
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1. Milkshake Clowns acrylic on pizza-box cardboard 2005 Although some think it's easily the cutest piece in the show, I think it's one of the more disturbing, if only because "milkshake" and "clowns" are two words that just don't ever need to be paired. Furthermore, Gallagher-esque hippie clowns really make my skin crawl.
2. Clown Call This one is my personal favorite of the show. The layers of detritus on the surface help to underscore the generally queasy nature of the imagery. DNA cloning rights are freely included with my hairs imbedded in the shellac.
3. Stalker Clown This image suffers considerably when viewed as a JPG online, because what stands out most about it in person is the ten coatings of gloss finish, giving it an almost glass-like sheen. The seeming impossibility of the clown to fit in such a small trash can recalls Lou Jacobs and his now-standard "Clown Car" routine.
4. Pondering the Angles In case you care, he's drinking Woodford Reserve bourbon and she's drinking a Blue Sky. This is done on the cardboard backing from a large book of canvasette sheets.
5. Dinnertime This pic was taken before the rainwater got involved. While leaving it outside to dry, it began to sprinkle rain and the droplets left a nice corrosion pattern on the surface of the still-wet finish. I liked the effect and didn't try to correct it. I find this particular female clown terrifying for personal reasons best not explored here.
6. Louise
"Oh, Louise.... dear sweet Louise... sniff... I can
see your scowling face everywhere I look.... I can
close my eyes and still smell your cotton candy and
popcorn fragrance..... "
This was done on 16 panels
of thin cardboard haphazardly combined *after* each
panel was painted separately, so it's a miracle that
anything aligns at all. This deliberately disjointed patchwork technique
is one that I'll be using on many more large-scale
pieces in the following year.
7. Clown Strangling Clown This one previously appeared in the Small Voices: Microscopic Paintings exhibit last Spring. The thumbnail shows it at its actual size, smaller than the smallest postage stamp. The Bozoid clown on the left is male but the gender of the other is indeterminate. At times I imagine a certain Leopold & Loeb relationship between them.
8. Night Boat The first of my pizza-box paintings. I enjoy painting on cardboard for its expressive tactile quality, and empty pizza boxes are something I tend to always have large quantities of on hand. This painting, I think, personifies the "Clowns in Love" concept better than any other, and for that matter, love in general. It's unfortunate that this JPG image crops out the lighthouse in the distance.
9. Existentialist Clown Comics I've never made any distinction between comic art and fine art. For that matter, I've never made any distinction between fine art and ideograms. Or any distinction between ideograms and pictographs. Or pictographs and icons, glyphs, sigils, rebuses and runes. All matter is one on the quantum level.... uh, what was the question again?
10. Auguste Clown One of a series of clown portraits done on strange wood constructions found in a trash dump in Berea, KY. Marcia Goss informs me that they're segments from an antique hardwood floor. This clown isn't specifically supposed to be Lou Jacobs, but a very similar example of that archetype. A smaller version of this painting, on postcard-sized canvas board, appears in the upcoming NYC independent film "Liars", based on the stage play by John Cecil.
11. Clown with Magic 8-Ball If you were a Clown in Love, what questions would YOU ask the magic 8-ball?
12. Grillo the Clown, sitting beside a dumpster Grillo the Clown is a street performer from Kentucky who I (cautiously) worship as a shining example of the power of the id to overcome all obstacles. Don't tell him he doesn't look very much like a clown by simply wearing a hockey mask or he'll get irate and perspire on you.
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