This series of paintings, Clockwork Oranges, started unintentionally. I had been working on paintings that combined abstract, geometric forms with snippets of realistic landscape. In the process I did a painting using orange circles, some drip elements and a series of rectilinear shapes. Since it was going in a show I had to name it. While looking at the work, I was reminded of the mechanical works of old wind-up clocks. So I titled it “Clockwork Oranges” (with apologies to Stanley Kubrick) who had directed the film of a similar name. The 1972 film “A Clockwork Orange” portrays a dystopian future saturated with drugs, blatant consumerism and random violence, peopled with venal politicians, mega corporations run by amoral oligarchs and a clueless elite. These paintings are inspired by our current culture’s similarity to Kubrick’s vision: the varying shapes (rectangles, triangles, etc.,) pulling in random directions around a stationary circle are like religious or political cults and their authoritarian leaders that running our world today.
This series of paintings, Clockwork Oranges, started unintentionally. I had been working on paintings that combined abstract, geometric forms with snippets of realistic landscape. In the process I did a painting using orange circles, some drip elements and a series of rectilinear shapes. Since it was going in a show I had to name it. While looking at the work, I was reminded of the mechanical works of old wind-up clocks. So I titled it “Clockwork Oranges” (with apologies to Stanley Kubrick) who had directed the film of a similar name. The 1972 film “A Clockwork Orange” portrays a dystopian future saturated with drugs, blatant consumerism and random violence, peopled with venal politicians, mega corporations run by amoral oligarchs and a clueless elite. These paintings are inspired by our current culture’s similarity to Kubrick’s vision: the varying shapes (rectangles, triangles, etc.,) pulling in random directions around a stationary circle are like religious or political cults and their authoritarian leaders that running our world today.