Encores
Marvin
Pastel on black drawing cardboard
30 x 42 cm
Marvin Lee Aday, later also known as Michael Lee Aday, is better known to most as Meat Loaf. His album ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ is a milestone in rock music, and his performance as Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is unforgettable. I myself never saw Meat Loaf, who sadly passed away in 2022, live. However, one of my best friends (one of the ‘Boys’) is such a die-hard Meat Loaf fan that I had no choice but to include Meat Loaf in the cycle. But since I never went to a concert, ‘only’ to the encores.
M.E.
Pastel, china ink, water colour, crayon
107 x 74 cm
‘M.E.’ is a kind of inventory and ‘midlife crisis avoidance painting’ that I created before my 50th birthday. The work on this image took almost a year. It combines a potpourri of longstanding image ideas and image quotations in one work. In a lively sequence, my own earlier works, the works of well-known and admired painters, album covers (including those by Pink Floyd, Genesis and Marillion) and people who have accompanied me through life are quoted and recreated. At exhibitions, I often observe how men in particular stand in front of this picture and try to decipher all the album quotes as if they were in a picture puzzle. The result is a large, multi-layered picture puzzle in the style of Bosch, as mysterious as life itself...
In art class at secondary school, we were once given the task of portraying ourselves in a pictorial collage. I was fascinated by this task even back then. The idea continued to haunt me artistically until I revisited it in ‘M.E.’. In the same collage-like style, but this time completely drawn.
The Boys Are Back In Town
Pastel
56 x 42 cm
The Boys Are Back In Town Again (The Fool's Mirror XXVII)
Pastel
48 x 22 cm
I really enjoy quoting rock songs as image titles. Here, both paintings are inspired by Thin Lizzy, and not just in their titles. The boys meet again. They have grown older. They have to help each other to relive earlier times. Nevertheless, they have remained true to each other, those who used to roam the streets and et the world on fire. A small remnant of that spark from days gone by still glows within them. But the most important thing is that they have each other. That has become the main focus; the distractions of life have become less important. Both pictures are mischievous declarations of love to my friends from my youth, who are still the same childish souls and have contributed greatly to enriching my life. Musically, too. The place in front of the garages in the second drawing, which I included in the 'Fool's Mirror" series (2016-2021), really exists. And in fact, we ‘boys’ meet there every year and listen to Alex's great playlists!‘