This was an assignment for school, we had to come up with a cover for a future issue of American Illustration and incorporate the issue number in as well. I decided to do 88, focusing on the relationship between an image and its viewer.
Ran Ortner - Swell, 2006 - oil on canvas
so jealous i’ll never be this good cuz i hate painting so much unless it’s splattershit everywhere - no patience - skills are 4 suckerz - god this is so awesome fuck
Opening on March 17 at LA’s Merry Karnowskly Gallery is a solo exhibition of new work from artist Todd Schorr, ‘Neverlasting Miracles.’ As the title suggests, Schorr explores the inherent contradictions of our modern society; technically advanced and yet disconnected on a personal level. Using the figures of Neanderthals and cartoons set in vividly colorful landscapes, the works explore complex narratives that speak of both our Narcissism and our need for connection. View more preview images below, here on Hi-Fructose.
The Transfiguration of Jeffrey Lee (Jeffrey Lee Pierce) by Rob Jones
Ink, acrylic, found objects, on found wood (2011)
When I was 22 I started getting alopecia spots on the back of my head. They’re round, perfectly hairless spots that expand outward, like throwing a pebble in a pool. It’s just a cosmetic thing but for me it’s definitely related to extreme stress/prolonged negative situations in which I don’t feel like there’s any end in sight or that I have any way of grasping (like severe unmedicated depression, etc)
Anyway after a while it got really bad, the spots in the back started meeting and I had these giant, completely smooth bald expanses. The hair falls out at the follicle so there’s no shadow, no nothing, you can bic the surrounding area and still see the spot. It was impossible to tell if it would eventually cover my whole head, stop at my head or continue to my body, how long it would last, if it would last forever, etc. Doctors can’t tell you, there’s very little research on alopecia since it’s not threatening to a person’s health (except possibly their emotional well-being over losing hair, of course.) It is an auto-immune disorder though, so research into it might reveal info about other, more harmful auto-immune disorders. The “treatment” for it is expensive, painful, and doesn’t necessarily work, and I didn’t really give a fuck so I shaved the rest of my hair off and prepared for the most extreme version of alopecia. This made me feel like I had some control over what was happening.
I also covered a case in photos of bald people who I thought were lovely, and I kept my clippers and bathroom stuff in the box. That’s where these scans come from.
Eventually the spots shrank and my hair started growing back in. Every couple of years I get a little spot on the back of my head still, but nothing as extreme as that first round.
Great piece. The story behind it is moving & the composition is so engaging - I’m sucked in by it, you rarely see so much depth in a collage. At least I don’t, ha. And the texture, the sloppity-slop & the hair bits, so personal & the raw emotion is just bleeding out all over it, I don’t even have words, this is like, perfect, fuck! Thank you for sharing it. Encouraging you to make more!
