Stoic Swine...soul in the soot, head in the ether
Stoic Swine makes drawings with a condor's focus (glinting at the apex of eye) and the steadiness of a hand reserved for a top-dollar surgeon. His large vine charcoal drawings are conceived and executed with a 'take-no-shit' intent. Stoic Swine explains, "When I am faced with a large white surface, I approach Drawing as a ritual and the goal of becoming entranced and entrenched with the current of mark-to-paper. I find it compelling when a drawing uses the artist as a vehicle in its own creation. This is Magic, and I am a minor component in providing a visual identity for its content."
Stoic Swine's recent work highlights perceived natures of god and self. “God’s First Blowjob†served as the gateway to the series, as did prevailing themes of grappling with ultimate power, personal dualities, the life force of sexuality, and humanized imagery of god. By placing gods or god-like creations in incongruous or earthly settings, he portrays the often conflicting relationship between divine power and individual understanding. Anthropomorphism in its finest hour.
This graphic assemblage may be viewed as a mighty derivative of Stoic Swine's upbringing by a drill-sergeant-turned-minister father, in conjunction with his personal in-depth queries into spirituality and mortality, and synthesized through years of impulsive cocktail napkin sketches of god/bull heady beings, monsters, and penis’.
Stoic Swine's additional areas of inspiration, examination and exploration for this body include: Dogon death masks, ayahuasca visions of Peruvian shamans, Panda Bear's "Person Pitch" record, and good ol' fashion Fear.
STOIC SWINE TIMELINE...
1976: i am born in a small kansas town (there is a big jail there). When i squirt out of my mother's birthing-hole the doctor catches one glimpse of my big brown eyes and declares: "this ones a keeper".
1980: eight years after his time in the vietnam war my father decides to become a lutheran minister. he will raise me through a convergence of drill sergent command and good ol' fashioned christian repression.
1984: my mother makes me a sparkly white glove so i can be like my idol: michael jackson.
1981: like any good, red-blooded american boy, i start making stick figure war doodles. these are collaborative efforts with fellow classmates that turn performative when one blows-up the opposition's fortress. loud mouth sounds become explosions as you rip apart the paper utilizing stabbing pencil gestures.
1987: my cubscout leader's dog mauls my head. i go through extensive reconstructive surgery to put my face back together. this is my introduction to disfiguration... Stoic Swine is born.
1992: i touch a bare female breast for the very first time. it is soft and squishy. i enjoy the process very much.
1996: i turn on. despite repeated warnings, i look into a mirror and discover three equal selves: 1.child-me 2.bunny-me 3.cop-me. i'm scared of all three and close my eyes and listen to spiritualized.
2001 (spring): i receive a masters of fine art from a shitty school in southern illinois. for my last independent study class i ride my bike 1200 miles in a hot-pink spandex bunny suit visiting children in hospitals.
2001 (fall): some buildings fall down after planes fly into them. i flip a coin the next day and end up in the corner of the country taking refuge in the danky woods of the northwest.
2001 (winter): i retire from making images.
2005: i start a band called the hopscotch boys. we sing songs about whores, insomnia and incestuous cults.
2006: i turn thirty and my hair starts thinning.
2007: i come out of retirement from making images. decide it's a good idea to make some big, fucked-up drawings like i use to in the good ol' days.
I UNRAVEL IN THE PLIGHT TO SEEK THE FACE OF GOD...AS I MAKE SHIT.
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