The way I create and the mediums I use, along with the ground, varies and is very much influenced by the stresses of financial problems. I often have to create on whatever I have, not what I want. Sometimes I paint with business cards on pieces of cardboard because that’s what’s available. Once I painted with exterior house paint on pieces of cardboard that had carpet samples attached to it because I didn’t have any other brushes, canvas or paint.
Creating the Side Head series is an exploration of an alternate perceived reality. I am looking through an artistic pair of glasses and see a distorted image of what exists in our current society. I paint what I see, feel and perceive as a flawed existence that we live in. I put this reality onto canvas, cardboard or whatever material calls to be a part of that realm and be altered into my unique world.
Chicago Artist Samuel Gillis