1982

I named this painting 1982 for some esoteric reasons that aren’t really reflected in the imagery. The rose pink in this painting is the same rose pink of a plastic headband I owned in 1982 when I was a second grader. We had just moved and I was at a new school in a second and third grade split classroom, where most kids were third graders. I had a series of headaches which eventually were attributed to the rose pink plastic headband and the enormous amount of hair it was trying to hold back.

The second reason I named it such is that it was the year I was first aware of the U.S.S.R., Communism, and the Cold War and thought about any of those things at all. The invasion and war in Ukraine made me recall my second grade-level fear of nuclear war with Russia in a way I hadn’t thought about in forty years. At times, current events and the news I listen to while painting affect my thoughts about a painting even though the subject matter and actual narrative of the painting is unrelated.

1982 uses my digital-first process of creating an image using Photoshop and several AI models in RunwayML. I used the same objects — some found on the internet, some from photos I’ve taken in Michigan and Colorado myself — but in a different perspective and orientation. I wanted to create a video game, first person perspective to previous paintings Melted Tree and The Doorway. I projected the digital sketch onto the canvas for the underpainting, then continued in a more traditional manner. 1982 is on display at Vin Rouge Wine Bar in Denver, CO until October 2022.