Middle East Vs. The Old West
All images in this series are taken from photographs acquired from books and the internet. The army man images are from photographs taken in Iraq and the cowboy images are from photographs taken in the time of the old west. I took more of a documentarian approach in this series reinterpreting the photographs to paint. I am attempting to raise questions in the mind of the viewer by placing the old west and current combat scenes together as one body of work. The integration of toys into several of the pieces is historical evidence of our attitude towards guns, violence and war. I am not presenting an opinion on wether its right or wrong, I am simply laying out some cultural artifacts in hopes of starting an internal and external dialogue with the viewers.