Initially, my work sparked from conversations with a close friend who joined the army at the age of 19. One year later he was deployed to Iraq. Through our discussions it became clear that this war has turned into a lingering abstraction of purpose. He couldn't explain why he was there, nor could he even explain if the war had any sort of goal.
From these discussions my work evolved into an exploration and critique of how the war in Iraq affects American citizens daily. How do we react to the visual exposure to the war? With the media's propensity to show the most jarring images and its reliance on shock value, we are bombarded with documentation of gruesome photos and video, ranging from wounded soldiers to dead women and children. The more these images continue to circulate, the more the populace seems to glaze over and adapt to them. They begin to shape into a disjointed, special-effects gore film with little emotional connection or cohesion.
My work reflects a determination to re-introduce these images andstories in a subtle manner that may cause us to think more deeply about the war. The wallpaper comments on the consumerist interest of our culture and also camouflages the war into a more domestic setting. As the portraits and objects emerge through the patterns, the war becomes more personal and identifiable. Iraq is so far away that we do not experience the horrors of war as the families do there. With daily bombing, street fighting, kidnapping and general fear, the war is very, very real to the Iraqi people and to the America soldier. It is far easier to overlook what is happening while comfortably halfway around the world. As the objects creep into the paintings it is similar to how the war is creeping into our own lives and country through financial burden and political dysfunction.
I have come to identify my technical process as printmaking on a large scale. Through the years printmaking has become my most successful means of expression. It incorporates both tedious attention to detail as well as creative elements of surprise and informative production. This process was the most natural way to construct my wallpaper because it was a controlled way to conceptualize and create. My materials are all limited to home decorating and painting. I created what I feel are elaborate designs that complement the juxtaposition between war and home. The figures are all stenciled in a simplified manner to incorporate them creatively and delicately within their environment. The union of lavish design with the harsh connotations that war images carry creates a new way to experience and digest our personal relationship to the war in Iraq.