105SHOW PREVIEW3The artist elaborates on his acrylic and
oil piece Pop Art. “Pop Art has references
to Warhol, Lichtenstein, Johns, Haring,
Banksy and Richard Hamilton. Beyond the
initial ‘ha-ha’ Pepsi pop art connection, the
deeper concept in the painting is in letting
the viewer interpret the juxtaposition of
these art icons to the vintage, distressed,
red/white/blue Pepsi carton, leading them
to think about how old this once fresh,
contemporary movement now is and how
my work is reevaluating what some of these
artists were doing through the filter of still
life and our continual obsession as a culture
with ‘pop,’ new objects/fads/etc.”
In Super Blues, three different generations
of Superman figures are sprawled across the
composition. A large vase of blue flowers is
positioned in the center, and what appears
to be a miniscule Lex Luthor stands below it
facing the oldest of the Supermans. “I started
by using every blue pigment that I own in
this composition...At first glance it looks
like Lex Luthor is holding out kryptonite
to Superman, but I actually used a Daddy
Warbucks figure as a Lex Luthor stand-in,
so under the Daddy Warbucks reading the
kryptonite is meant to be seen as an emerald/
riches, and Superman is being tempted by
money to ‘sell out’, and as this Superman
action figure was made in 1978, the year
I was born, he’s also being a stand-in for me.”Hobaugh says that while the spark that
ignites inspiration for a piece can shift from
day to day, there’s a consistent, slow-burning
desire to break from the norm, especially
having come from the rural Midwest. As
a collective whole, he says, he hopes his
works are taken as his attempt at a “great
American novel.” “I think all artists, visual or
otherwise, are like the Sun,” he says. “They’re
full of a creativity source, like the Sun is full
of hydrogen and helium atoms, and it just
has to burst out of you until the end.”Canyon Road Contemporary Art
622 Canyon Road • Santa Fe, NM 87501 • (505) 983-0433
http://www.canyoncontemporary.com2 4