Buying Into The Brand.

This is my most recent piece, a large 48x60" painting that has slowly come together over about...4 or 5 sessions of working. It was one of the more difficult paintings i've worked on in a while; I had an original and secondary direction, both of which didn't turn out, followed by a few investigations that just fell short of the standard. This final image didn't appear till very late in the process, and I was actually quite hesitant to, once again, take on the subject of the bull. However, with a bitter election coming to a close, I got some new inspiration from the time-honored subject...

This is all about, well, "buying into the brand." In our everyday life, many of us work tirelessly to avoid being defined by a brand. To steal an example from Wayne's World...

most of us do not want to be told what to do, to be defined by the products we used, or be used as an advertising tool...but why then are we so willing to assign a name to our politics? Why are we so partisan to one group or the other? Why do people say they are interested and passionate, yet do exactly what the leaders tell them, believe everything the media says, and not challenge or think critically about the things they read, hear or disagree with? We spend so much energy getting out from under someone else's thumb, yet fail to realize how we are being pushed along a pre-determined route through our partisan elections and politicians.

It's not that you can't agree with one side or eventually pick a team to side with, I'm just astonished how many people seem to believe that either party is really 100% correct and willing to not only support that side, but are comfortable defining themselves by that political brand.

We all talk of compromise in politics, but our actions say very much that we are OK with the divide...or at least OK with showing our divide...in fact, we're mostly responsible for branding ourselves. The politicians just grab hold, get a good grip and keep driving us forward, fanning the flames and furthering the divide.

If you really want to get out of partisan politics, the first step is to get out from under your own pre-determined label.

Take a look at the details below to see some smaller aspects of the piece...