In 2005, I put up two shows simultaneously, Private Masks and Public Faces. While Private Masks consisted of portraits of nine people who work with death on a daily basis, Public Faces gathered together the portraits of thirteen Oregon public officials.
The inspiration for these series landed in my lap quite unexpectedly. In the summer of 2004, I was focusing most of my energy on the promotional work for Snow Days while also toying with some rather bland concepts for potential series when an old friend visited me. Darin gave me an article about the Death With Dignity Act--Oregon’s law allowing terminal patients to request (and doctors to prescribe at their request) a lethal dose of barbiturates which the patients can administer to themselves when they are ready to die. The article featured a series of portraits, in words and in photos, of a handful of people who had completed the proper steps and had the lethal prescription on hand. Darin was convinced that I should redo the series in paintings. While I eventually chose a different group of subjects, Darin’s ideas about the kind of work I should make remained mostly unchanged.
Eli Stutsman (Lead Author Of The Death With Dignity Act)
from Private Masks
2005
acrylic on canvas
22 x 28 inches
(detail below)
In bringing up Death With Dignity, Darin had touched on a topic that was, at the time, occupying a lot of my brain space. Choice. Not choice as it refers to picking between options, but choice as it refers to the commitment a person feels in the action, person, or thing which she-he chooses. Darin reframed my thoughts about choice to relate them to life and death--not a choice between two options, but a choice to really live instead of existing among the walking dead.
From there, the old saying about death and taxes led me to create a foil for Public Faces. The inanity of the most private moment of a person’s life, her-his death, juxtaposed with the yearly dues she-he pays to the government made me realize just what taxes symbolize. They are a person’s commitment to be a part of a society and, in some ways, to live a purposeful life.
Which isn’t to say I always pay my taxes with relish! But I do appreciate that they make me “official” on some level. They prove that I am a contributing member. And for an incorrigible misfit, it’s good to feel like I belong...even if it’s to a club I have to pay into!
Bill Bradbury (Secretary Of The State Of Oregon)
from Public Faces
2005
acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches
(detail below)
