I was born on an air force base in Georgia and lived out my childhood in Los Angeles and Macon
Georgia before coming to New York to attend Columbia University. I love art, my parents love art and both were artists themselves,
my mother and my step-father. In fact I can't remember a day without mom and dad doing or planning something artistic. Lucky
me.
"POP ART was marked by a
fascination with popular
culture reflecting the affluence in post-war society
in the 50's & 60's. It was most prominent in American art. In celebrating everyday objects such as soup cans, washing
powder, comic strips and soda pop bottles. The movement turned the commonplace into icons. By definition POP ART is an art
movement in the 50's through the 70's that incorporated modern popular culture and the mass media.
Pop Art is a direct descendant of Dadaism in the
way it mocks the established art world by appropriating images from the street, the supermarket, the mass media, and presenting
it as art in itself.
I see a new commonplace desire by popular culture
for '5 seconds' of fame through reality TV and, in fact, celebrity 'flashing' is on the rise from the pants down. A friend
of mine recently said to me, "today, people see what they want to see."
I'm asking you to see more.
My ICONS are aberrant, many not mainstream or known.
No matter who they are, they are individuals who matter. They are all people with whom we all have something in common
and they touch our lives every day, they are you and me. My 'soup cans & washing powders 'are now held by their 'commonplace
strangers' from every street corner as they find sustenance through bottle collecting or whatever they can do to survive.
Today the not-so-subtle complexities of our 'POP CULTURE' are infinite in these 'not-so-affluent' societal times as our own
country engages in conflict.
I do not live in the 60's and
I am not blind to my own popular culture and it's 'everyday objects', and yes, I do believe that people have been reduced
to 'objects' in many situations fueled by mass media, and it's time for a change. My art is just here to remind you to do
so and you can start by acknowledging the existence of that stranger standing next to you." - OLAN 2008
