Welcome to the Show is a growing body of work created with spray paint and acrylic on wood panel and canvas. Through this collection, I construct an absurd, illustrative world that uses humor to confront seriousness, vulnerability, and psychological depth. The work reflects my experience as both an artist and a performer, creating under the pressure of an imagined, critical audience.
This series marks a turning point in my practice. Rather than performing for expectations, I began painting from a place of honesty and release, allowing instinct to guide my decisions. The existing works—Yee-Honk, Honk-Shoe, and Death of a Salesman—explore discovery through movement, texture, and energy. My technical approach prioritizes immediacy and intuition: spray paint introduces speed and unpredictability, while acrylic allows for refinement and layering. Although my background is rooted in traditional painting and portraiture, I intentionally disrupt those foundations to challenge control, perfectionism, and narrative certainty.
YeeHonk, 40' x 30", acrylic and spay paint on wood panel
"Yee-Honk" is the first piece in this collection. The motif of clowns first surfaced when I began this work, as I felt it represented my feelings of dissonance grappling with the expressiveness of my process in the height of personal expectations and fear of failure.
How can we be an artists without being on stage, without inciting an audience? How do we confront the expectations of the performance? How can I persevere in the face of self doubt? These are questions that surfaced as I experimented with the different elements of the clown and his environment.
The second two works in the Welcome to the Show collection—Honk-Shoe and Death of a Salesman—emerged rapidly after Yee-Honk, created within less than two weeks while I remained in a similar, continuous state of making.
Death of a Salesman serves as a reflection on the American Dream. The path of the artist rarely aligns with the traditional narrative of success, yet I continue forward regardless—motivated by the hope that my pursuit will amount to more than spectacle, that I will not “die a clown” for choosing this road.
Honk-Shoe offers a parallel commentary, examining the power of language when paired with visual imagery. By collapsing words and symbols into a single form, the work exposes the absurdity of assumption and emphasizes the importance of stepping back to recognize the broader context in which meaning is constructed.
Death of a salesman, 30"x24", acrylic and spray paint on wood panel
Honk-Shoe, 20"x16", acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Close up of Death of a Salesman
Close up of Yee-Honk
Progress shot of Yee-Honk
