This piece, unlike "We Don't Kill Cats" which I'll delve into later, came to me pretty quickly as I was trying to fall asleep (after a few hours of frustrating work on "We Don't Kill Cats") and turned out very similarly to what I originally imagined...a rare outcome in my work.
The piece is a commentary on modern culture and a interesting POV I heard in a documentary. The main statement that stuck with me was..."If you're not great, pretend, and if people don't believe you, pretend louder." and I think what they meant was to not give up, not feel down on yourself...to believe in yourself and what you do....To not let the pessimism of others negatively effect your life. But what that statement actually says to me is "don't actually work hard, just tell people you work hard." and that's a very different statement..
This piece is about that perspective. The idea that "I'm already good enough, so if I just project that, people will believe me, buy into me, and I'll succeed." and I don't think that's a good way to go.
The patterned sweater in the piece is the "ad." It's the "look at how good I look" instead of "let me show you how good I am". It's all flash and no substance. It's got a billion little parts, but no hidden message, no purpose...It looks extremely intricate and time-consuming, but in reality, its creation amounts to some patterned doodling...mindless mark-making.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it doesn't look nice...that's the point.
The rest of the piece is bland...minimal...maybe even forgotten. You have a partial frame...a partly done face...a simple long neck that may crack at any second, sending the head spilling to the floor.
We don't know the man...or if it IS a man...we don't know the intent or if they have an intent....we don't know their thoughts as they stare straight back at us. They await our judgement...and a patterned sweater, a long neck, and a blank face is all we really have to go off of.
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