American House Now!

American House Now! #1, 2011. 12" x 12" x 10". Cardboard, acrylic, pencil, oil pastel, pen, and cloth.

Made with very rudimentary, refuse type items this Rauschenberg invented Combine of painting and sculpture depicts a house covered by a sheet of cloth. This can conjure images of anything from a death shroud, blanket, snow, hobo's make-shift domicile or a child's ghost costume for Halloween. The act of covering the basic architectural model, made in a style similar to a child's scrawled drawing of a house, suggests I am putting it to sleep. This is a continuation of a running theme I have in my work of protecting items. By burying it or covering it with a sheet it is akin to placing it under the ground or tucking it into bed. It's safe now and monsters of the world can no longer assail it.

Please read more after the break! Lots more pictures and ramblings!

The piece is obviously a statement on the current Housing Bubble burst affecting millions of Americans how have had their houses foreclosed. Forgive me reader, as I am afraid this is going to result in a diatribe on my part. I feel many Americans lived far above the extent of their means to cause this problem. The greed for the white picket fence dream has lead many to having the bank reposes the house they bought. Our entitlement here is put to sleep in my piece. I am also commenting on the state of American craftsmanship. It no longer exists in my mind, in the work I see. We have come to talk again about an American Exceptionalism, and I cannot see the values of our founding being anything we are currently excelling at. Failing our children for test scores by lampooning math, the sciences, and the arts, championing a culture of worthless superstars and celebrity, war and imperialism are things we excel at here in the United States. While I do feel that America is better, that being a subjective term, than most places on this earth, socially we have to put our hand to the plow.

I have included symbols of the number 4, clausere, morte as in mortgage, lender, loan, bubble, a plummeting line graph, architectural symbols, legal tender, and auction signage in this sculpture.