InfiltrARTor: art

Introduction to the Outsider art sectionID: Drawings

I decided to separate the Outsider Art from the rest of the art, because the theme has something particular about it that needs to be kept away from the rest: the “outsider art” is folk art on steroids; folk art is more relaxed and provincial, while outsider art is more wired up and stressed out. In the mid and late 1990s, before I got into art-for-social-cause, I had a particular affinity for dadaistic, surrealistic, and outsider art. I finally get to present my early work, especially the Uglies; this series, in a way, was my intro-door to the beginning abandonment of the dysfunctional contemporary culture. Why am I not bulking together the Outsider art with the Conceptual? Because they have a different origin: The Conceptual is planned and thought out, while the Outsider art is more go-with-the-flow and reactive. The Conceptual has a message inserted in it; while if there is a message in the Outsider art, it is more or less unintentional.

Robot giftID: Drawing on cardboard packaging

Unintentionally, it actually came out looking a little bit like Donald Trump, doesn't it?

The one-eyed raw sewage Goddess standing on the top of the bathtub-world and proudly spreading her wisdom.

The one-eyed raw sewage Goddess…ID: Picture of my clogged bathtub

One day when I unplugged my kitchen sink to drain the water where I had washed my clothes, I didn't expect to (later) find an outsider art in my own bathtub, but that's exactly what had happened: What I witnessed was a one-eyed raw sewage Goddess standing on the top of the bathtub-world and proudly spreading her wisdom. She was perfect, I kept looking at her, and I fell in love with her so much that I had to take a picture. Of course, I never bothered to hug and kiss her!

Introduction to the UgliesID: Drawings

The “ugly” works (not coined by me), also known as the Uglies (plural noun), were a pivotal moment for me in my art reorientation in the late 1990s when my work began to transition to be politically incorrect. Thematically, these works have nothing to do with political and social issues, but everything to do with the collapsing of society depicted in pessimistic, outsider-art, and darkly humorous manner. Pretty much all of these works were done habitually in the late 1990s. I couldn't wait to start the next one, because I was addicted to them. They were alleviating my stress after school and after work. They were not only a pivotal moment in my changing art, but in my changing life too. At that time I was transitioning from being a follower of the conventional ways of living – to abandoning it. Two fronts were closing on me and preventing me from having a normal life: my lack of having money and my lack of being loved by the women who I was attracted to. The Uglies were my escape from the lies that I had been promised by the phony American dream, and by the phony culture that had promised me to be loved by the women. I was becoming an outsider who was creating outsider art, and by doing it I was resisting my oppressive fronts.