Driven Over The Edge
Painted late 2010s, finally being varnished. Oil on Panel.
“Breaking news, there has been another terror attack in >>fill in the blank<<“
The modern digital media cycle is oppressive.
At a certain point, you have to realise that everyone who puts out any kind of media is in a competition for your attention.
Terror attacks essentially work the same way if you think about it. They are always designed to project beyond their locality to as far and wide as possible.
There was one incident that motivated me to paint the terrorist involved. I don’t remember his name (Oscar maybe? Some middle-aged latino guy). It was in a southern US state, I’m pretty sure Florida but could be mistaken.
The MSM reported the crime as motivated by paranoid online conspiracy theories or some such. I would argue he could have just as much been motivated by a reaction to the paranoia of the MSM itself.
It’s the bouncing feedback loop that goes on in the head of a man who got too detached from society and became alienated, and felt sufficient hostility to react. He killed some people, and eventually he was killed. Killing innocent people is wrong, but I can’t remember his motivations or his victims I’m afraid.
There was a white van involved. It might’ve been the one he slept in? I also can’t recall this.
The only other thing I remember is the general sense that this was a man driven insane by a frenetic media prison he couldn’t get out of, by government activity (the deep-state), by a culture debased from norms, and by the paranoia of constant surveillance and snooping. The fear that someone out there is not thinking what they are supposed to think. In fact I can’t even fully remember if that was how it was, but that’s how it seemed. In short, all I remember was the media circus and the key images of the man and the white van
Since 9/11 and Columbine made murder-for-media impact a thing there have been countless incidents over the years. I don’t know if it’s within anyone’s capacity to remember any except the biggest ones. No one talks about this one anymore, but it dominated the world news cycle for several days.
I decided to paint the guy who did it, paint the high-tech paranoia. I put it away and forgot about it for years. This morning I found it once again. I think its actually a very good painting of mine.
Maybe it’s about attention-seeking and attention-avoiding too. Wanting to be left alone vs wanting to tell the world you exist and you matter. I dunno. Not everything in art is sunshine and roses.