money it's a gas
the song this painting is referencing is ‘money’ by pink floyd, with the lyrics written in the background.
money it’s a gas
grab that cash with one hand
and make a stash
this is one of the first pieces i did when i finally chose art over manual labor. it was summer of 2024 and i was mulling over the concept of money and exploring my relationship to it.
i think the concept of money has a different feel to it in summer, when you spend most of your time outside and barefoot and in nature, feeling freedom just because you feel air and sunshine on your face. but capitalism doesn’t cease to exist, even when simple joys are just outside the window.
it was the summer when i got to enjoy life without spending 40 of the brightest daylight hours inside a warehouse, but it was also when i had to figure out how to make it on my own, so i don’t have to come back to manual labor. maybe art can be it for me, i thought then. maybe art can translate into money, i thought.
artists know how horribly that line of thinking distorts the creative process. once you start painting to make money, you’re done. i tried really hard to not be fixated on making money—i did still have time to figure that out. it was the year after that that i truly had to change something financially to survive. so i see this period around summer 2024 still as a very dreamlike period of my life. money was a problem to solve, but it was not yet hanging over my head like a guillotine.
i was looking at things from a somewhat philosophical standpoint. how real is money? how tangible? why must it be our lifeline? is it a tool, an energetic currency, or the root of all evil? i’ve been through phases of seeing it as both good and evil.
the character you see recurring in my paintings, i had named anarchist. anarchist is a reflection of my own spirit. shaved head as a symbol of defiance, tunneled ears that mirror body modifications of a rebelling youth. the spirit of anarchy is deep within it, so that is not the face of someone who complies to the capitalist scheme of selling your body and time in exchange for money. however, it might be someone who sees beyond the facade, and sees where the root of evil truly lies. money is neutral. money is colored by the hand that holds it.
our anarchist here sees through that front, having eyes to see in every direction. the third eye placement is a fish-shaped eye. i think i painted that to say that i’m swimming against the current.
i used acrylic, ink and oil stick here. just like with ‘oil stick study i’, i used a combination of ink and oil stick for the face. it’s a combination i discovered through experimentation, and haven’t seen anyone else use this technique yet, but i love it. ink does not go with oil stick easily. it tends to try and run off the surface when applied. that produces an unexpected texture, because we don’t know where the ink will choose to settle, and where it’ll part. i added extra ink along the outlines and where eyes, nose, lips, eyebrows should be, to create a semblance of a face. i repeated the technique with the text. it’s a stubborn combination of materials, but that’s a quality that works perfectly for this piece. most of my pieces, really.