there's no way I can't give some background to these paintings whilst showing them. I'm afraid I have to share a bit of personal banter but it's worth it, honest
PAINTINGS AT BOTTOM OF BLOG POST (there's been some confusion that the work of mr jack chick is actually mine haha)
I was brought up in a very christian household. when I was 5 we moved to aberdeen because my parents were going to be managers of a christian bookshop. pretty much from age 5 to about 13 I spent at least a few hours at the bookshop a day. in all honesty, I enjoyed being there. I've always enjoyed time on my own, whether that was a result of being left alone a lot, or lucky that I was quite happy in my own imagination's company, I don't know. either or, it was fine, I wasn't bothered. I got to go get a snack from a nearby shop and read comics by myself (and later play on the computer that everyone else who worked there was technophobic towards. I discovered a LOT about the inner workings of windows 3.1 from about 1995 onwards, due to boredom mixed with an acute ability to fend off boredom)
anyway, when I was younger and the bookshop was tiny, on huntly street, when mum and dad were cashing up or stock taking or whatever it was that took their work late into the night, my favourite things to do included:
1. playing with my kinder egg car on top of the rows of books like it was some sort of rally car landscape
2. look for christian books about 'love' ie sex-as much as christians are allowed to read about that
3. 'weight lifting' with a crow bar. I was quite wee mind
4. hiding in boxes for a long while to then spring out at people
5. making dens in cupboards (until the time I got boxed in with many boxes of russian bibles)
6. making structures out of the scripture printed erasers in the shop
7. sitting in the dark shop making up 'music videos' using again, a kinder egg toy, a guy with a baseball bat with movable arms. that way he was able to act out actions to my singing made up songs
AND MOST OF ALL
8. reading all the scary 'tracts' from the shop
if you don't already know 'tracts' are like little comic style booklet things that have some sort of message that is meant to make you reconsider your ways and put you in touch with the information that jesus is the answer to all your problems/sinful lifestyle choices. these pretty much always end in an image of hell followed by heaven, then of course, you choose heaven
this series of paintings refers specifically to a range of tracts by an author called JACK CHICK. I read as much of this as I could get my hands on because it was pretty much the only exciting thing about a christian bookshop at night to be fair. they were like horror stories and imagery you were, for once, ALLOWED, in fact, encouraged to view. I have gone back to look at some of these for the first time in about 20 years and was flabbergasted by how inappropriate it is for a kid, or anyone, to base any type of life decision on these. I guess they were more popular in a less politically correct time. they are written from a completely in-church perspective and use scare tactics to convert you. reading them as an adult, their absurdity hit me like a ton of bricks, more so because alongside there is a comfortable feeling of warm nostalgia, for some odd reason
here's an example of one tract I would have read at about age 9 or something. it's pretty hysterical in so many ways. people actually went on about life in this kind of way. for a faith that is meant to bring hope and peace, I have never seen so much scary ass stuff in my entire life
converted? yeah, I thought so. if you want a good laugh I urge you to please go and read more of these. the drawings are often horrendous and the story lines just amazingly outdated and ignorant
here are the paintings I've done so far. it's been a very personal journey to look into some of the past concerning my time alone as a child, the literature surrounding me, the relationship with my mother and the environment in which I was influenced by. not too sound too cliche but I know it's really important for me that I make some sense, or rather, a nonsense of these things. the main subject of these paintings are text taken verbatim from some selected tracts. in isolation, the information from just a cell of one of these comics, I think, holds a creepy poeticism that is really pretty funny
chick tract painting 1, oil on canvas, 5ft x 5ft, 2011
chick tract painting 2, oil on canvas, 1.5ft x 2ft, 2011
chick tract painting 3, oil on canvas, 2ft x 3ft, 2011
chick tract painting 4, oil on canvas, 2ft x 3ft, 2011
thanks for listening. more work to come