(The Rock and Roll series is actively in production and will eventually consist of 16 to 20 pieces.)

Rock and Roll: Narrative

In contemporary society, rock stardom evokes for millions the image of an ideal fantasy existence. It conjures up a paradigm which enables the total triumph of the unbridled id, fueled and ostensibly absolved of accountability by copious amounts of money, mass adoration and reinforcement by legions of followers who believe in the fantasy and live vicariously through the star, pushing her further and further into excess. Cracks begin to appear in her psyche as she detaches from reality, all her darwinistic desires sated and no longer subject to the natural human rythms of need, want and reward. She's driven by only two desires: The endless and increasingly elusive search for ever greater emotional highs, and the overwhelming need to sate the ever escalating expectations of her followers.

The Rock and Roll series is a visual rock opera that takes us on a sensory journey through the turbulent life of a young rock star. It attempts to put the music to canvas and to give us a glimpse of a world distorted by the illusions and pressures of stardom. It simultaneously celebrates the intense sensual drama of rock and roll music and its universally recognizable iconography, while examining the toll that it takes on a real human being who gets engulfed by the rock and roll lifestyle. In this series we examine glory and despair that is found at the boundary between the fantasy and reality of rock stardom.

The series is broken up into four colours. Each represents a different facet of the rock stars life

Red is excitement, energy, anticipation
In "Red 1" we see the rock star in a dramatic moment, guitar in hand, as she rallies her psyche in preparation for yet another show. We see a mixture of excitement and fear in her eyes as the self subsumes to the stage persona, which she must conjure time and time again on cue, whether she has the strength to rally it or not. She's slowly slipping away from reality. The rock n' roll scene, with all its energy and its expectations, devours her individuality. She's sucked into it and only barely emerges from it. She's now "part of the scene", inextricably trapped in it.

White is the world inside the spotlight
In "White 1" we see the rock star in a moment of repose standing in the glare of a spotlight before an unseen, faceless audience. The spotlight overwhelms her. She exists in a space that is essentially no where. She is alone but observed.

In "White 2" we experience the buzz of live performance. The figure is lost in the energy. All is motion and music. We lose ourselves in the excitement of the moment.

Gold is the party - life on the altar
In "Gold 1" we look up at the rock star ostensibly living the rock and roll dream, at yet another in an endless series of parties, drinking with abandon. Millions envy her lifestyle and seek to emulate it, putting it up on a pedestal. She's presented to us as an holy Madonna. However, she's empty and jaded to the whole scene and not enjoying it. She's becoming a stone-faced, joyless vessel. She's frozen into a gilded statue, no longer an individual but merely a hollow surrogate for the fantasies of others. A golden calf.

Black is alone
In "Black 1" we see the rock star in repose, contemplating yet another hollow relationship. Though she's lounged in a comfortable bed, swaddled in fine linens, she feels her loneliness gnawing at her.

 

Execution:

Ron's first extended series of paintings - the "Rock and Roll" series, is a product of his attempts to fuse wildly divergent artistic influences. The execution of the figures is rooted in a particular school of realism he understands as descendant from John Singer Sargent, the patron saint of contemporary illustrators. The rendering of the figures is further informed by the haunting paintings of the turn of the century Hungarian painter József Rippl-Rónai, whose work Ron came to know and admire from his recent travels to Budapest. The composition of the figures is inspired by the operatic Art Nouveau compositons of Alfons Mucha, for whom Ron developed a deep appreciation during a trip to the artist's home city, Prague. It seemed a natural fit to transpose Mucha's themology of 19th century theater and opera to modern rock and roll.

The composition as a whole is informed specifically by the minimalist sensibilities of Mark Rothko and Brice Marden. Ron re-imagines their principles applied to a composition incorporating representational elements and narrative. Each figure exists within a uniform color field. The color field serves the narrative in that it acts as the second character in each painting. Specifically, it has an adversarial relationship with the figure, symbolizing the paradigm to which she is imprisoned.

The color field in each piece has its own unique surface characteristics. Through each painting's texture, Ron revels in the sensuality of the texture of the painted brush stroke and wants the viewer to share his fondness for it unencumbered by large variations in value and hue. He strives to have the texture complement and reinforce the narrative set forth by the color.

Ron takes conceptual inspiration from the pop-surrealist or low-brow art movement. At their root, the topics upon which he bases his work are drawn from his own life experience and the visual and media world in which he was brought up. Ron feels by definition that in order to be authentic, his artwork must incorporate imagery and ideas that have genuinely affected his own life and development. In that way he shares many of the same goals as the low-brow artists, though his content is less overtly pop.