A Steady Living
A Steady Living © Justin DeGarmo (2006)
Best Interpretation: “The blue gorilla of our own circus, escapee of the zoo of surreal loneliness. A ringmaster smacks red stars into our backs, the sting a plump asterisk of emotion, and nothing to the weeping wrung from the accordian’s plaintive breath. We are primitive in our pain, painted with a child’s palette of primary colors, we are primal, we are prime for the last act where three rings spin with burdened beasts: the defeated lions, the kneeling elephants, the joyless motions of a dancing bear.” -S. Kartsonis
The Artist’s Secrets: “I once worked for a decorative art company, where I had to design paintings in various styles, under a fake name. Occasionally, my boss would stand behind me, arms folded, shaking his head. He couldn’t articulate what I was doing wrong… ‘No, don’t paint it like that…or that.’ I did my best to make him happy, which usually meant painting something that went completely against my personal aesthetic. Every now and then, the art reps that worked downstairs would invite up some new potential buyers, with whom we artists weren’t allowed to speak. They would parade through, and we’d just have to look creative at our easel/cubicles. I learned a lot there, but it was a soul-sucking and humiliating experience. I think there are some traces of that experience in this painting.” -Justin DeGarmo
Issue Apr 2007
Pop Art
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The clouds in the sky part with the sun peering from behind, just like the ringmaster stands behind the gorilla he whips. This is a painting in layers about control, dominance, and veneers.
Each of the four colors in this image–blue, red, yellow, and white–carries with it a different meaning.
Blue is the color of sadness, as evidenced by the blue-furred gorilla crying a blue teardrop as he mournfully plays the accordion, its notes flowing out a confusion of all colors. The ringmaster’s whip, hat and pants are all blue as well–the means of inflicting “blueness” upon the gorilla. Also, instead of silver lining on the parting clouds, we see blue lining, which indicates that the gorilla has only sadness and oppression in his bleak, hopeless future.
Red symbolizes anger, blood, and aggression here. The lashings from the ringmaster’s whip cause bloody welts on the gorilla’s fur, further accentuated by the crack of the whip (the red-edged starburst around the whip’s tip). This shape mimics the sun, but the similarity only serves to contrast the disparity between the sun (warm, life-giving), and this whip-crack shape (slowly sapping life from the gorilla). Red masks the gorilla’s frown in a painted smile; red-ringed nostrils suggest pain with every breath. Finally, the red of the flags bleed in stripes along the circus tents down to a red ground–a makeshift graveyard of rent notes.
Yellow should be the color of happiness, but here it’s always infected with red except in the instance of the sun. White should be the color of pureness and clarity, but here we see it is instead the color of masking.
This painting begs the viewer to look beneath the surface at the underlying costs, motives and messages of the things we are told is entertainment.
The blue gorilla of our own circus, escapee of the zoo of surreal loneliness. A ringmaster smacks red stars into our backs, the sting a plump asterisk of emotion, and nothing to the weeping wrung from the accordian’s plaintive breath. We are primitive in our pain, painted with a child’s palette of primary colors, we are primal, we are prime for the last act where three rings spin with burdened beasts: the defeated lions, the kneeling elephants, the joyless motions of a dancing bear.
El ser humano ridiculiza a la naturaleza, abusando de ella como si tuviera el control, olvidando que su gran fuerza impredecible, terminara por invertir los papeles.
Translation: A human can ridicule nature by abusing it with power and control. Nature is a massive, unpredictable force that can easily reverse our purpose and roles on Earth.