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This is from a series I am calling ‘Reuse. At the time of this work, I was trying to break out of my standard approach to making an oil painting from references to my photographs. I had a few different ideas floating around and decided to work on them both at the same time.

The first approach started from an older idea where I had taken apart an old film camera in an attempt to fix it. The repair failed, and I was left with unusable parts. For some reasons, I decided to see what kinds of marks they would leave on paper, if I inked them up. I quickly realized that I the print quality and control of the imagery was limited. This time I decided to press them into something to make an impression, and then make prints from that. The “something” started to be clay, but eventually became plasticine. Using the plasticine, I made various impressions and marks. The image changed slightly each time that I pressed down on the maleable plasticine, giving me a finite set of usable prints before the original image changed.

At the same time, I had been working through an idea of creating images of various “trickster” icons. I was trying to break free from my own personal rules of artmaking, so embracing this trickster archetype was a means to remind me to losen up. I was convincing myself to move forward with all ideas even if they seemed frivilous or antagonistic to others.

As I brainstormed on various trickersters, I also realized that while broadly available as characters in our culture, the ownership of some specific tricksters imagery has been taken over; they were copywrighted, and owned by various companies. It is illegal to reproduce without permission, and they aren’t giving permission. I found this troubling.

To add to that concern, copying others’ imagery isn’t encouraged in the art world, it quickly falls into categories like “copying for studing” or “fan art”. Its also considered unoriginal and an easy out. Unless you’re Warhol, of course. However, if you’re paid to illustrate for a company that owns the copyright, well now its okay and you can be praised as a great illustrator. Reproduce and reuse the images without permission (and sell it) and you’re breaking the rules!

That seemed like an appropriate area for a trickster to inhabit. So without copyright reuse permission, I present to you these illustrations of “Reuse”.