Chris Simonite's Cubo-Weirdism Blog! A Blog about Chris Simonite's Art by Chris Simonite. Who the Hell else?

For the last few years most of the subject matter for my paintings has consisted of characters from famous movies and TV shows. But earlier this year I started to branch out a bit while staying in the pop culture realm. I began to do paintings of actors, comedians and musicians, many of whom are almost universally considered to be national treasures. But at some point, I also started to do a smaller series of paintings of famous people from culture culture. Here I'm referring to the art world which is generally considered to be 'culture', or 'high culture', whatever you want to call it. What I'm trying to say is, I did some paintings of famous artists.

Now I suppose in the case of most of the artists I have painted the lines are kind of blurred. Artists like Dali and Warhol essentially crossed over to the world of pop culture. Especially Warhol, I mean he is the most famous of all the artists from the genre of Pop Art. And Picasso, was just plain famous. But I did start to run out of ideas for artists to paint. How many artists from the 20th and 21st Centuries are recognizable by their faces? Maybe I could do one of Georgia O'Keefe. She was a great painter and I know what she looked like! But do most people? I'm not sure…

Picasso, Dali and Warhol. A few of my paintings in my "Legendary Artists" Series.

Anyway, all that to say, I decided to do at least one more in the artists series even though I'm pretty sure most people do not know what the chosen subject looks like. So I guess you could say that my painting of George Condo is kind of a deep cut, but I'll get into that soon. I know I've gone on and on about how much of an influence Condo is, so I won't get into that too much here. I also know that by looking at my work it probably looks like I'm more influenced by Picasso than Condo. But the truth is it was Condo that inspired me to delve into "cubism" and develop the "Cubo-Weirdism" style I'm know for. Okay, I use the word "known" loosely, but I digress.

So why did I paint George Condo if most of the people looking at this site or my social media accounts don't know what he looks like? Well, I guess I just did it because I wanted to. I wanted to paint a tribute to one of my favourite living artists and I thought it would be interesting and amusing to paint it in a style that is loosely influenced by the artist himself. And I suppose I also painted it for my Instagram followers. There are a quite a few artists on social media that are just as influenced by Condo as I am, so to those artists, this is for you!

George Condo, 11" x 14", oil on canvas, 2022. 

The last thing I have to say about this painting is, it probably won't be the last painting I do of Mr. Condo. I feel like it could have been quite a bit weirder, or at least more Condo-like. The teeth on the right side of his face are a pretty good Condo reference, but I I do feel like I could have pushed it a little more. Maybe an open mouth and Condo-like ears? Anyway, we shall see! Who knows, maybe I'll make this painting soon. See you next week!