Back in the 80’s there were only 4 things I spent any significant amount of time on: making art, reading, my girls and gardening. While perusing a used book store in Champaign, I came across a paperback that jumped off of the shelf at me. It was The TV Ritual, sub-titled Worship at the Video Altar, by Gregor T. Goethals. According to the date notation I placed inside the cover, the date was May 1987. It’s a book about how television remakes myth and legend and thereby molds our culture. It’s an elusive but powerful process. And while I thought about the concepts and conclusions drawn in the text, I also wondered about it on a personal level. Therefore, it ended up being incorporated into my art. I made a series of drawings and paintings of my daughters with the television. Incidentally, two of these drawings were acquired by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Today, nearly 30 years later, the power of television to control and manipulate our lives is blatant. It is the field upon which politics is played out as well as the major means by which Madison Avenue influences our decision-making. Whomever controls the box, controls the manipulation.
Heading For Andromeda 