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Sam McBride
Artist Statement
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There's a theory that a
thing is ugly because it has a characteristic or quality that
doesn't belong or is out of place. It has something that makes
a person uncomfortable and want to erase it. Or, maybe cover
it up or change it. Maybe it needs to be ignored or shunned.
Maybe it should be snuffed out, or preserved as special and unique.
Maybe we pity the ugly thing. Perhaps it's not ugly at all, but
incredible and beautiful.
As I work, I'm trying to achieve
some kind of balance. If the thing is missing a leg, it gets
balance from a bunny tail or sprouts a wheel. If their bodies
are deformed, the weight of other parts make it stable. The thing
still functions as a whole in spite of what's missing.
I'm working into and out of what
is communicable and what is incommunicable - between the real
and the imagined. I try to wiggle into that space that is between
past and future - the psychology is fractured but complete.
I moved west from Waynesboro,
Georgia, the Birddog Capitol of the World, in 1989. I lived in
Los Angeles for many years and studied at Otis College of Art
and Design.
Now I live in the head of Camel
Rock. I have been collaborating with Bartley Johnson and am inspired
by his work. That third hand creates another artist/character/s.
By combining our work, we have made something that is not me
or Bart, but this whole other Thing. And it is always a surprise.
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