Acrylic, wood, graphite, fabric, cardboard, rope and collected objects on wood panel. 24 x 18 in.
ORIGINAL PORTRAIT has been purchased by a private collector.
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AWARDS:
Communication Arts Illustration Annual 63
May/June 2022 issue
American Illustration 41
CHOSEN Winner - Online Collection
The pandemic has brought renewed focus on mental health and substance abuse. The early months of isolation was a time that led many to their darkest days of addiction. I created this portrait of Kurt Cobain to expand the conversation surrounding mental health, substance abuse and the often-associated stigma attached.
Kurt kept his rig in a Tom Moore cigar box like the one I've used here. The contents include: A blacked-up spoon, Q-tips, a fresh syringe, a lighter and cotton balls.
October is National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. It is a time to highlight the vital importance of prevention in both individual and community health, to remember those who have lost their lives to addiction, to acknowledge those in recovery, and to recognize children, parents, family, and friends supporting them.
I’m fascinated by shapers of cultural shift. My curiosity leads me to investigate their lives through tactile art-making. I gather pieces of everyday, discarded ephemera, and in a process blending painting and sculpture, explore relationships between my subjects, their lives and personal struggles, and our own vulnerabilities and humanity.
In the fall of 1991, Kurt Cobain's Seattle-based trio, Nirvana, unleashed a bright and explosive sound comet into the atmosphere that would alter the global course of music and carve a new path for angst, guts, passion and full-on unapologetic grunge. The album 'Nevermind' shifted the world on its axis and 30 years later, shock waves continue to reverberate under the feet of listeners young and old.
We are complex individuals, every one of us. We are unique, yet similar. We are despicable at times, and also we are lovely and kind and thoughtful. We secretly compare ourselves to those around us, and then hold ourselves hostage to self-hatred and disgust. It often seems easier to love others with care and gentleness than to honor our own souls and attendant injuries.
If we could see inside of one another - actually see what each of us is carrying around, perhaps our perspective might be altered. Perhaps we might offer a bit more grace and kindness to one another and to ourselves.
Kurt struggled with addiction, depression, and bi-polar disorder. He was also a highly sensitive visionary who changed the musical landscape. His guitar tone, rasp of a voice, his words, and his now famous cardigan sweater were all ingredients in his genius. I wonder what might have been different had he found peace and healing before substance abuse took his life.