An overall view of the painting put up at the Country Club of Virginia during their Centennial Gala. In the twelve days prior to the Centennial I managed to hastily paint this while also working over 70 hours.Owing to the short time limit and successful recovery of the work after the event, this painting will still undergo major changes.
A view of my palette while painting
In it's gilded wooden frame, inside a convenient cardboard window box, the painting has appeared at the bus stop for further transit. 
Prior to the "installation" of the painting the artist in question had worked a full nine hours in suspense over the whether or not the operation would succeed. At the critical opening moment of the Gala - when the crowd was just coming in - a mirror hanging on the wall suddenly became a painting on the wall...
In the minutes after the act was accomplished I feverishly went back to work, wondering how many more minutes it would be before the awkward and tense conversation with management, and the boot out the door. To my enormous surprise, this never happened - instead the work actually fit in quite well into the surroundings and stayed on the wall for nearly six hours. Here, the evening's event photographer casually does her work - including unknowingly photographing the painting - as members stroll slowly by, typically oblivious or contemptuous of the workers struggling to speed through to serve their every need.
The painting was in the wall for nearly six hours, until it's sudden mysterious removal and replacement with a mirror as the night was winding down.
This is my favorite photo and my favorite response. I made this painting as a portrait of the workers - not the members, who are served hand and foot, and display their miserable cultural taste throughout the whole club and society.
For the Centennial of the Club not a word was said about the Century of hard and unrewarded labor that gave the life of luxury to those of privilege. Not a bit was done for the numerous employees present who had spent their entire adult lives in service of the club. All that was offered was an "enhanced employee meal," listed in the gargantuan budget of the $109,000 event. It was: boiled hot dogs and french fries for lunch, canned baked beans, canned vegetables, and canned Italian pasta for dinner. Baked beans and Italian pasta don't even make sense together!
Experience of treatment like this is why I wanted to offer a painting that actually shows the immense labor of those who work at club, the range of what must be endured, the thoughts and feelings of those who work.
Soon after it was hung word was spread amongst the workers, so that nearly all of the regular employees with a chance to walk around saw the piece. On several occasions during my busy travels - as I was still working perhaps the worst night of all my time there - I walked by groups of one, three, or even six workers standing in the area taking a look. Several mentioned and showed to me a bit a joy and amusement they had, despite the miserable work of the night.
3 comments:
Jeff, this is just brilliant...
I agree! I admire the use of art in a sneak attack, that fact that the patrons were so absolutely oblivious to the fact that right there on the wall was a REAL mirror of the scene, while the workers of course noticed. And had the satisfaction of being themselves the subjects of art (which is itself a form of status), rather than just objects of exploitation as they are on the job!
AND last but not least I like the actual painting -- Dynamic and vivid in the best traditions of George Grosz and Max Beckmann.
Congratulations on your best show yet! Keep up the good work.
This is gorgeous both as a piece of art and as a statement. You have beautifully blended the two- indeed- Art as Cognition of Life.
I especially like the man at the back of the painting- the worker behind it all.
Congratulations and much admiration!
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