The new Dress, Tea Time{SOLD}, Untitled {School Play}, Untitled {Hide and Seek}SOLD, Taking a Trip Pt.Three
each piece is twenty x twenty four inches, acrylic on canvas, five hundred dollars each.
People have been quite demanding asking about the themes that I'm using in this series of "Fables",
group think- {participating in crowds}, escape/adventure, these are very popular themes in children's tales and I think they also reflect strongly in my life as a painter. The anonymity of the artist, the observer, the creation of images as mirrors of personal, societal tableaux {due to the figurative aspect of these works} had been my working model for many years as a painter, after a two year break to try to express these themes in a non figurative way {see Small Towns , Birdhouses} I wanted to find a new "in" to look at these themes.
The use of the "Children's Illustrative" model was a new and novel way for me to share these "thoughts", images that also have a less tragic or bleak approach to subject matter that could, if presented another way, may seem, too sad or too distant from the personal world of the viewer to access the image. The viewer identifies in the lack of identity that the "Bandits" possess, the "Mothers" are identical for the same reasons. The boys and girls of the "Taking a Trip" series are an image directly from a dream, a dream of escape and adventure, the severe mock murders of the "Martyr's" reflect the power of anonymity in "group think".
Also a love of theatre and storytelling is prevalent in the series, pageantry, false enviroments and playacting deserve to be noted. I hope this helps as a begining to enjoying this work and addresses some of your questions.
contact A. Shay Hahn by calling
