Art Show of Bipolar Clowns and Spirit Babies

MESA, Ariz. - July 28, 2013 - PRLog -- What: BIPOLAR CLOWNS AND SPIRIT BABIES
         10-painting exbhition of new large paintings (all 4x4 foot or larger).

Where: Warehouse 1005        
         1005 N. First St
         Phoenix, AZ  85004

When: Opening exhbition on First Friday, August 2 from 6pm to 9pm. Subsequent exhibition on Third Friday August 16th 6pm to 9pm. Paintings on display during the day throughout month of August.

Who: Shelley Whiting - (480) 733-4133 - shellwhiting@yahoo.com
        more images to view at shellwhiting.blogspot.com

People throughout their lives play several roles. At first glance this show might seem full of random figures: clowns, beauty queens, some spooky old men and baby old men. However, all of the characters represent several attributes that make me who I am: my bipolar disorder, religious and spiritual roots and social awkwardness. I believe each person’s identity is a hodge podge like this.

My recent art is autobiographical. I start with a photograph of myself, then I distort it to capture the essence of a personality trait of mine. The quick comic gesture of a caricature is able to communicate who I am better than the finesse of a social front.

BIPOLAR DISORDER

I struggle with my illness on an everyday basis. As a bipolar person I am more on the manic side. Mania to me is the sugary, artificial and over-the-top version of myself that comes and goes rather dramatically. Clowns are an exemplary symbol of mania. They transform from normal people into the epitome of goofiness. By painting myself as a clown I am super-sizing into a stupid and inane version of myself but also letting myself go to not be too serious. The visual style of my paintings is also very circus-like. It has a sweet and nostalgic beauty but also a twisted funhouse feel. I use crowded polka dots, dashes or circles in the backgrounds of the paintings to express the anxious goofiness of my manic episodes.

RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL ROOTS

I have always been a spiritual person. Throughout my whole life I have been an off-again and on-again Mormon. Even with my struggles with the religion I have always believed in god. It is not my intention to offend people but then again I am not the Mormon missionary eager to convert either.

On one side of the show will be the more zany religious paintings:

The Spirit Babies pictures are meant to be lighthearted and silly. Before we were born Mormons believe that all people were spirit children of God. Throughout my life I always thought of spirit children as being fun and carefree but having wisdom like old men. Some people would represent them as sad and serious, but I think our preexistence would have been fun. The pictures show old men as babies with oversized glasses. The spirit babies are in a space-like, cartoony environment with planets. By portraying spirit children in this way I am offering a carefree take on life before birth.

The Heavenly Father figures are the more serious paintings.

The Heavenly figures are old men with white hair. They carry the weight of the world on their hands in the form of spirit babies. In these paintings the spirit babies are not individuals; they are a collective gift to the world. I decided to make Heavenly Father figures less specific and to depict a general spiritual figure. The paintings are in black and copper and have an otherworldly atmosphere to them.

SOCIAL AWKWARDNESS

As a woman I am forced to reconcile myself with a societal construct of beauty. Through a simple makeover of hair and makeup I am able to reinvent my external self. My whole life I’ve also always been the geek, the person whose social mask is that of the bookworm who does not wear pretty dresses or a beauty queen smile. I thought it would be fun to try to be this type of woman. I decided to put different hair styles and clothing on myself in a paper-doll manner. But behind these paintings of myself are violent and dizzy repetitive line markings showing the nightmarish internal drama of having a conflicting outer identity.

I hope I can offer a new, happy-go-lucky perspective on mental health and religion. Both of these topics are perhaps taboo from a marketing perspective. However, I hope that through this show viewers will be able to open a fresh dialogue on both these subjects.