Studio Notes. New painting - War Porn - and the changing face of war art from front line soldiers

War Porn, acrylic on canvas.

I often use the term 'gateway image"to describe a painting which is a bridge between one series and the next. Most of the time it is not that clean, because you travel a road and the landscape changes along the way.

So there are not really any breaks between one idea/exhibition and another. Instead, I find there is a gateway image. It is still within the one theme, but merging with the next. In this case, it is the prelude to my narrative for The Resurrection of the Tin Man - Part 2.

There is a lot going on in this painting War Porn: The Angels Of The Emaculate Contraption. Basquiat, Blackberries, a twin Fetus, a Talon robot system amid a war zone and a binary code Crucifiction. A lot going on. It felt like an acid trip.

Do not ask me why, how, where, what, but yes, The Nolan Sisters became the collective angels coming into my DARPA lab buried beneath the sands of Afghanistan. And the solar flares, well they do what solar flares do, cause havoc with military experiments which gives birth to new life, to new ideas.

The lines at the base are from William Blake's poem The Poison Tree (1794) - which brings a sense of balance to the fact that I am using Christian theology as a launching pad to the series.

Some people might find this combination of elements a bit strange, but I was trying to get the colours in the paint to feel like an old 80s video. More Studio Diaries