Rookies
Inspiration - The cover art for Fuel for the Hate Game by Hot Water Music.
Welcome to open mic night! Please remember to pull those punches.
Acrylic on wood panel, 25 x 25in, Ampersand panel frame (black.)
Framed next to the original cover
*Process
This painting took me a year to complete. This is not healthy.
It wasn’t a year because this particular work is some technical masterpiece, far from it. It was from, what they call “writers block” or artist paralysis. I was literally still trying to hit the undo key on the side of the wood panel, and when you work for decades with insanely talented concept artists, making a painting along side of them can diminish ones confidence to the point of “why bother.” I had to regain the confidence to not give a shit about what other artists think and what they are doing. I had to get back to being positively selfish as a creative for this moment to catch fire.
Two opponents, both of them generic and grey. The boxing gloves represent these fools as all bark no bite. In this instance the tattoos, akin to clown makeup, present surface level personas. Like any good contest we love to watch the score climb as points fly. The points are the arrows, merely opinions with prejudice. They always miss the point. If only these two would use their heads this contest have not reached Join or Die levels of stupid. Unfortunately this narrative is timeless.
I always loved the title “Fuel for the Hate Game.” So bad ass and provocative. I do not recall the origin story of the original Fuel cover. I do however know that I was trying to depict an argument. My only regret with this new painting is that I failed to find a spot for the original’s briefcase. I thought about drawing a tiny briefcase in the corner just to represent.
The color gradients across the snake bits were a real breakthrough for me. I just scumbled color over the drawing and wiped it away. This process of tinting appears throughout this series.