John St. Peter

Escalating Nonsense - upper left	Escalating Nonsense - upper right	Escalating Nonsense - lower left	Escalating Nonsense - lower right

Small linocuts of soldiers in three different positions; killing, being killed and dead, are repeatedly stamped with ink on paper.  At first glancing, the image hits you like a swarm of black hornets and after longer viewing you begin to see the senseless horror of the battle.  I chose black and white in the painting for the same reason Picasso chose black and white in his work titled “Guernica”, like a newspaper for a immediate impact.

The reason I started to do this work , in relation to the Iraq war, was that I was frustrated, and I felt helpless in trying to prevent it from happening.  I went to all the anti-war protests in New York city and Washington D.C. (I recently move to New Mexico from New York city).  The first few protests were strong and I felt that the people had power, but when the war started, and after reading what the media had to say, we were basically ignored.  I felt betrayed.  I wanted to do graffiti all over New York city.  I wanted to make myself heard.  I was completely frustrated at the powerlessness I was feeling.  The only thing I could do was to continue on my art, but at that time I was making these abstract minimalist pieces.  I decided to take a break from this and to start transmitting, through drawing and painting, my feelings in relation to the day-by-day occurrences of this war.  I also wanted to say something with these works, to give an underlying message that I hoped could be understood as anti-war.

This artwork is highly textural.  They are made up of crumpled newspaper, soaked in acrylic and stuck to a circular board.  I was interested in creating uneasiness, and I accomplished this by making a turbulent surface, which works as background and foreground simultaneously.  Through this artwork I wanted to show the instability we are experiencing with present administration.  This theme is going to be determinant to the outcome of the U.S. electoral process.

John St. Peter, artist statement for Political Show ©2004

View John's new work for the Love Show by clicking here!

Home | Up | Calendar of Events | Current Show | Past Shows | Buy Online | Contact us | Links

all images and writing on this site are copy written property of the artists and à la carte. ©