Due to an absence of positive male role models at home and in schools, American boys can turn to mass media and popular culture texts to learn character building lessons that have the power to transform them into responsible and well-rounded men. The alarming facts that the United States leads the world in fatherless households, only one in nine elementary school teachers are men and that our country’s priorities are being guided by rampant consumerism have all contributed to a crisis in the development of adolescent males. I propose that there are stories in popular culture that can serve as surrogate sources for the life lessons that these absentee men should be imparting to our boys. Through the study of the modes and means of expression in popular culture mediums, I have come up with a selection of books, movies and other popular culture texts that can help positively effect adolescent male development. Through the creation of original artworks inspired by some of these texts I seek to further reflect upon the transformative power of these stories.
I have decided to approach visualizing the ideas of my thesis paper by creating a series of self-portrait paintings. While I have worked in a variety of media, painting seemed like the best choice for communicating the ideas explored in my writing. By incorporating visual elements and quotations from my source material in self-portraits I was able to vividly illustrate the themes and ideas I was drawing upon and able to place myself within the worlds that these texts exist in. During my ongoing development as both an artist and an educator I find these dual roles inextricably linked: as an educator I try to draw upon the pedagogical power of art, and as an artist I search for inspiration from the interests and influences of my students.
In designing these paintings I have sought to bring a childlike sensibility and style to the works. Owing to ways that several of these texts influenced my personal development I strived to produce the types of images I would have liked to create as a child but was unable to do so because of a lack of specific skills or resources. As an adolescent I grew up with a loving and supportive mother and father, but in a single parent household. I constantly immersed myself in books, movies and comic books and owe many learned life lessons to these types of texts. While this work is very personal to me – I was thrilled to once again be able to lose myself in these stories’ worlds as I researched each painting – I strongly believe in the power of these texts to transform all boys’ lives in positive ways.
The paintings represent a selection of books and one comic book the vertical compositions; and movies the horizontal compositions; from kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school age appropriate texts. The quotes incorporated in the paintings come from the original sources. The imagery is often composited from book illustrations and movie stills as a way of further referencing the original artist’s vision and marrying it with my own style. The mass media has the power to transform lives in positive ways; I present my art and life experience as a testament to this idea.
i will show the works in the order that i completed them. this is the first painting:
“Maybe there is a beast… maybe there is only us.” Lord of the Flies, 48” x 24” acrylic on canvas
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