I began painting in 1994 as a distraction from being a workaholic. This, in addition to spending time with my family, led to a technique of finishing paintings in one, maybe two sittings of
a couple hours. Although it was not my intent at the time, what I found is that by working very much "in the moment" I got an undiluted, unretouched snapshot of my state of mind at the time. I found I had
an eye for color, and a talent for extracting information from my subconscious. I was not aware of it at the time, but the paintings from the "Blindspot" gallery are all messages "from
me, to me" to take a look at the circumstances surrounding my mother's death
at my father's hands when I was 9 years old, and how it was still affecting me as an adult.
When I finally clued into the idea that my life was ruled by the unconcious thought processes of a scared
little boy, I had to start "reindexing" my perceptions of the world I had created for myslelf. This was both and exhilerating and frightening, because though everything in my life was starting to make sense and I
realized that feeling like crap wasn't "normal", it also meant taking a look at some very scary, unpleasant aspects of my life and personality. The "Meltdown" gallery looks at that initial awakening, while the "Fallout" gallery documents my explorations into my emotional agonies, my obsessions, my sexuality,
relationships with women, and my generally fucked up thought processes on a variety of topics. It is also a collection of reactions to the shit that inevitably hits the fan when outmoded systems of thought are
replaced with new ones. Finally, "The Unknown" is a somewhat less focused group of paintings done more recently. Having purged a lot of personal issues through my art over the last few years, I'd like to
use what I do to try and connect with people on more of a "shared experience" level. This is something new to me and I'm not really sure where it will lead, thus the title "The Unknown". Because there is
a lot to look at here, all images have been 'optimized' to down load quickly. Great effort was taken to keep the digitized images consistent in look to the original paintings. Because of my limited skills in
photography, and the optimization process, some of the brightness and clarity may be lost. If you are considering a purchase and would like a higher res image, I will be happy to email one to you.
Some images are of an explicit nature (though not gratuitously so), and should not be viewed by children or the easily offended. Please enjoy your visit here and feel free to contact me with questions or comments. Kris Hoglund |
