In my praxis I have always been interested in the relationship of abstraction vs. realism. An important issue in painting is locating the line where a paint smear either fails to communicate or successfully transforms to signage. These Airstream images create a situation where the abstraction is contained within a sign.

The discourse of painting vs. photography is another theme in this work. The paintings were inspired from amateur photographs taken by proud Airstream enthusiasts or sellers on the internet. In the photo, reflections are comfortable and easy to name. It’s difficult to paint a reflection because, not unlike the painting itself, the viewer might instead see it as a window or just material on the surface. Also, painting is not firmly held to a hierarchy of realism. The contorted world could potentially be the reality meant by the painting.

Along with being a distorting lense, the Airstream trailer itself is a symbol of the American Dream and therefore an illusion of a different kind. The Post-WWII industrial prosperity was described in the craftsmanship of each individually American-made trailer. It was a fulfillment of an easy suburban adventurism, allowing the typical nuclear family to go anywhere and still be comfortably at home. But the Airstream’s shiny futuristic exterior covered up an ugly and dated interior design. Just as we know today, the appearance of a happy family was often a deceptive front for a hideous inner reality. I’m interested in how both the pictorial and ideological distortions intersect and what it means from a contemporary perspective. In the very least, these hard to find vehicles are objects of pipe dream nostalgia made evermore potent in today’s world of economic decline, cheap overseas production, and overworked families.

The pictorial reflection helps the Airstream sink into its surroundings like a chameleon. This is similar to the camouflage of mediocrity hiding the family who might have originally owned the trailer. Rarely is the viewer included in the reflection, creating an odd disembodied gaze. However when they are visible, they have turned into a faceless elongated figure. Of the entire body of work, only two pieces interrupt the abstraction to offer an open door to the trailer’s inner darkness.