Deconstruction of Innocence Worship at Jennie Richee (blengigomeneans) 2018-23 50.5x51.5x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, polyester rug, poplar panel *available
Truncated image from a late American naive artist, Henry Darger’s collaged illustration accompanying his epic narrative, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. This partial scene depicts a brief, peaceful respite of darling mythical species called the "Blengigomeneans;" gigantic winged beings with curved horns who occasionally take human or part-human form, even disguising themselves as children. Although mostly benevolent, some Blengins are extremely suspicious of all humans, due to Glandelinian atrocities.
SHAM-FU’S 2018 39”x39”x2” crayon/linen/panel *available
Altered screenshot still from opening scenes of Prest-O Change-O, a 1939 Merrie Melodies short film directed by Chuck Jones and released by Warner Bros, where a dogcatcher chases two puppies into an ostensibly haunted house. The cartoon features the second appearance of Bugs Bunny as Sham-Fu, the magician’s manic pet white hare who made his first appearance in Porky's Hare Hunt, which was produced and copyrighted in 1937 and released in April 1938, featuring him in the same early design. This is also the character's first appearance in a Merrie Melodies color film.
Ferdinand 2018 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *SOLD Kentucky
Original image screenshot from Ferdinand the Bull , a 1938 American stand-alone animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on November 25, 1938, by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Dick Rickard and based on the 1936 book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. The music was by Albert Hay Malotte, most known for his setting of The Lord's Prayer, commonly sung at weddings.
Austin substituted a radiant cow pie and accompanying flies in contrast to Ferdinand’s aromatic flower.
MICKEY’S HYDOUT 2017 12x12x2” crayon/linen/panel *available
Squatter's Rights is a 1946 animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions. The cartoon depicts a confrontation between Pluto and Chip and Dale who have taken up residence in Mickey Mouse's hunting shack. It was the 119th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the only one produced that year.
MICKEY’S TRAILER 2017 12x12x2” crayon/linen/panel *available
Mickey's Trailer is a 1938 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon stars Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy on a near disastrous road trip in a travel trailer. Animators include Ed Love, Louie Schmitt, Johnny Cannon, Don Patterson, Clyde Geronimi, Tom Palmer, Frenchy de Trémaudan and Cy Young. Pete makes a cameo in this cartoon where he is seen driving a truck during the "Runaway Trailer" sequence featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. This cartoon was released about five months after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was the 100th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the second for that year.
Defaced Sleepwalker 2018 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *SOLD New York
Sleepwalker 2014 is a sculpture by American hyper-realistic sculptor, Tony Matelli. The sculpture was subject to controversy when first publicly displayed at Wellesley College, an all-women’s school, where it was vandalized with yellow paint in the early hours of May 21, 2014. The sculpture was relocated to the High Line in NYC in 2016, a cause célèbre for the West Manhattan Park.
HOOK & LADDER 2017 10x10x2” crayon/linen/panel *SOLD Indiana
Fire Chief is a 1940 Disney short film starring Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. During the cartoon, Donald’s impetuous antics cause the fire house and the fire truck to burn down completely and, to add insult to injury, his hat burns down as well, resulting in its burnt frames becoming Donald's 'hair'. Defeated, he looks at the camera and says to the audience "You can't win. You just can't win."
Sex Doll (Becky) 2017 12”x12”x2” crayon/linen/panel *available
Original image sourced from the top hit of a Google Shopping search for ‘sex’ ‘doll’ in November ‘17. I decided that $50 was high for a budget inflatable, so I passed on the initial intent to purchase. Nevertheless, my questionable use time browsing and recorded search history is also a weird reflection of my personal lived experience, so here is a document of that.
Figaro Bound 2017 12x12x2” crayon/linen/panel *SOLD Kentucky
First Aiders is a 1944 animated short film directed by Charles Nichols produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon depicts Minnie practicing first-aid on Pluto, to Figaro's delight and amusement until Figaro finds himself all wrapped up as a consequence of his rolling hysteria. It was notably the first time Minnie appears in a cartoon without Mickey Mouse.
Batwing/Skin-sail/Puppetry of the Penis Scrotal Stretch Abstraction 2017 12x12x2” crayon, linen, poplar *SOLD Kentucky
Skewed and color-altered untitled Ellsworth Kelly painting
vulvodynia 2021 9x9x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
vulvodynia is an unexplained vaginal pain affecting an estimated 16% of women, and consequently their partners.
blurry selfie 2017 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *available
Original image taken by artist
blurry L.H.O.O.Q. or La Joconde 2017 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *available
Cropped original image of the famed 1517 work Mona Lisa by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, with title attributed to the derivative 1919 original work L.H.O.O.Q. or La Joconde by Marcel Duchamp.
Blurry Child no. 2 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *available
Skewed, blurred image, cropped from American painter, Caleb Weintraub’s mixed media work, The Captains house was the first target… From a google search of the artist’s name that I discovered while surfing the internet.
Warped and Detached Bob Swain Color Combo #74 2017 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar
Blurry Kid no.1 2017 12x12x2 Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *available
Blurred image of an unknown child, cropped from the internet.
If You Don’t Please 2017 12x12x2” Crayola Crayon, linen, poplar *available
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. It was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, and features the voices of Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Verna Felton, and Peggy Lee. The film was based on the 1945 Cosmopolitan magazine story "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog" by Ward Greene, and tells the story of Lady the pampered Cocker Spaniel as she grows from puppy to adult, deals with changes in her family, and meets and falls in love with Tramp the homeless mutt.
If You Please 2017 12x12x2” Crayola Crayon, linen, poplar *available
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. It was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, and features the voices of Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Verna Felton, and Peggy Lee. The film was based on the 1945 Cosmopolitan magazine story "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog" by Ward Greene, and tells the story of Lady the pampered Cocker Spaniel as she grows from puppy to adult, deals with changes in her family, and meets and falls in love with Tramp the homeless mutt.
Beaky Buzzard 2017 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *SOLD Kentucky
Original image screenshot from 1942 Merrie Melodies short film Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, directed by Bob Clampett, produced by Leon Schlesinger, and released to theatres by Warner Bros. Pictures. The cartoon’s title is a Brooklyn-accented way of saying "gets the bird", which can refer to an obscene gesture, or as simply the "Bronx cheer.” It marks the first appearance of Beaky Buzzard in a Warner Bros. short… Beaky is tasked by his mother to catch Bugs for dinner, during the pursuit role reversals flip back and forth, including a scene with the pair dancing the ‘jitterbug,’ and concludes with an imperiled Beaky being released unharmed back to the wings of his mother, who declares Bugs a hero, kissing the mimicking bashful bunny.
Ariel 2017 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, linen, poplar *SOLD Kentucky
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the 1837 Danish fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The film was written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and produced by Musker and Howard Ashman, who also wrote the film's songs with Alan Menken. Menken also composed the film's score. Featuring the voices of René Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Paddi Edwards, Buddy Hackett, Jason Marin, Kenneth Mars, Ben Wright and Samuel E. Wright, The Little Mermaid tells the story of a teenage mermaid princess named Ariel, who dreams of becoming human and falls in love with a human prince named Eric, which leads her to make a magic deal with the sea witch, Ursula, to become human and be with him.
FOXY LOXY (sky’s fallin’) 2017 12x12x2”crayon/linen/panel *SOLD Kentucky
Chicken Little is a 1943 short film created by Walt Disney during World War II, and directed by Clyde Geronimi. The short was based on the European folk tale "Henny Penny", known in the United States as "Chicken Little". It is an anti-Nazi film showing the evils of mass hysteria.
Foxy Loxy reads aloud a passage describing the best way to manipulate the whole flock is to begin with "the least intelligent". He soon identifies Chicken Little as that yo-yo wielding simpleton and convinces him that “the sky is falling.” Panic spreads throughout the flock and they all hightail it into a cave for safety, which turns out to be the fox’s den which Loxy immediately seals once all are inside.
While the narrator reassures the audience that everything will be alright, the cartoon closes with a now pot bellied Foxy Loxy picking his teeth and arranging the wishbones of the devoured birds in a row resembling a war cemetery. The narrator is shocked and insists that this is not how the story was supposed to end. Foxy Loxy responds in a fourth wall breaking moment by reminding the narrator not to believe everything he reads.
Signature Piece 2016 60x28x4.5” Crayola crayon, polyester jewels, acrylic gel medium, gesso, on cnc’d laminated baltic birch *available
Artist’s signature in three dimensions
Name Painting (white) 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, canvas, poplar *available
From 25-color name painting series installation riffing off Josh Smith’s ‘name paintings.’
Breakfast with Christopher 2016 Crayola crayon and brick on Foamular Insulation *available
Adapted, recycled, isolated, recontextualized, repositioned, recombined, inherited visual language of my Washington University studio mate and peer, Christopher Thomas Campbell.
Black on Black 2016 14x16x5” hat, yarn, gesso, canvas, poplar *available
Abstract experiment challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
White on White 2016 14x16x5” hat, yarn, gesso, canvas, poplar *available
Abstract experiment challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
Wendy Thomas 2016 13x18x3” acrylic, yarn, ribbon, canvas, poplar *avaliable
Abstract experiment challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
Tea Towel Painting 14x16x2.5” found cotton on poplar *available
Abstract experiment with limited hand and found material challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
Double Scotch & Drambouie Painting 2016 12x12x2” two found nails taken from Donald Judd’s Marfa, Texas property impaled into the center of plywood sheet on poplar with gesso *available
Title references ingredient mixture of the ‘rusty nail’ cocktail
Bag Man Painting 2016 12x12x3.5” (dimensions variable) loose plastic retail bags (from JoAnn, Lowes, Home Depot, and Schuncks) squashed, twisted, and crammed into a pine frame *available
Abstract experiment with free found objects challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
Walgreens Material Painting 2016 12x12x2” plastic retail bags from Walgreens drug store and sticker receipt stretched over Walgreens frame included with ‘Internet to Store Canvas’ photo print purchase. *available
Abstract experiment with disposable accessory objects challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
Blue Scotch (Tape) Painting 2016 12x12x2” tape on poplar
Abstract experiment with reused disposable tape, challenging the definition of ‘painting.’
Postdated Painting 2016 9x9x4” vinyl on styrofoam
Austin’s friend and classmate, Kahlil Robert Irving was producing beautiful cast porcelain food boxes that piqued Austin’s interest.
Austin purchased two of these works from Tucker Pierce at Westminster Press Gallery located at 3156 Cherokee St in St. Louis with the intention of recontextualizing the works as his own after some calculated intervention, but quickly realized that he couldn't risk the displeasure of fucking up the things.
After finishing a meal of snoots from Smoki O’s BBQ, Austin scrubbed clean the white box and painted one of Irving’s favorite repeated phrases on the surface using black flashe paint. Although completed on February 28th, 2016, the title is derivative of the decision to assign the birth of the work for the following date (leap day).
Studio Sweepings Painting 2016 12x12x2.5” Crayola crayon, thread, glitter, wood chips, saw dust, stink bug, gesso, canvas, poplar
Dust pan collection from Austin’s graduate studio affixed to the surface of canvas-wrapped panel.
Blue Glitter Chevron Painting 2016 12x12x2” polyester jewels, acrylic gel medium, gesso, canvas, poplar *available
Material experimantation riffing on JoAnn fabric pattern
JoAnn’s Chevron (blue) 2016 12x12x2” printed fabric remnants on poplar *available
Experiment with material economy and labor restraint
Misstretched Painting no.9 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no.8 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no.7 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no. 6 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no. 5 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no. 4 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no. 3 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no. 2 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Misstretched Painting no. 1 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of American punk nihilist artist and musician, Steven Parrino.
Blinky Palermo Painting no.1a 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of German abstract painter, Blinky Palermo.
Blinky Palermo Painting no.1b 2016 12x12x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, linen, poplar *available
From a series of meditations on the work of German abstract painter, Blinky Palermo.
Aloha Texas Painting 2016 12x12x2 found shirt on poplar *available
Experimental mediation challenging definition of painting. Button-down shirt purchased at Marfa, Texas Goodwill Store.
Cebrallero Painting 2016 12x12x2” found tee on poplar *available
Experimental mediation challenging definition of painting. Tee shirt purchased at Marfa, Texas Goodwill Store.
Property of U-HAUL Painting 2016 12x12x2” found printed felt on poplar *available
Experimental mediation challenging definition of painting.
Cocoa Puffs Painting 2016 12x12x2” printed cotton on poplar *available
Experimental mediation challenging definition of painting. Tee shirt purchased by Austin at Spencer’s Gifts Store in 1996.
Red Sequin Painting 2016 12x12x2” found fabric, poplar *available
Experimental mediation challenging definition of painting.
Three Sebergs 2015 30x80x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, interior door *available
Image cropped and skewed from American artist Jamie Adams’ oil painting niagaradown 2013. Austin’s first graduate advisor at Washington University in St. Louis’ Sam Fox School of Art and Architecture.
The Seine (sin) 2015 32x80x2” Crayola crayon, gesso, interior door *available
Distorted image of Gustave Courbet’s Les Demoiselles des bords de la Seine (été) 1857, originally exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1857. Bequeathed to the French state in 1906, now in the permanent collection of Petite Palais museum.
Architecture and Morality (after Falkowski) 2015 30x80x2 acrylic on interior door *available
Distorted image screenshot from American artist Andrew Falkowski’s faculty page at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Austin received Falkowski’s tutelage during a semester-long painting seminar course. The original digital image documents a photographed a cropped perspective of an installation of paintings and sculptures from a 2013 exhibition at the Suburban gallery in Chicago, that Austin only experienced virtually over a year after the exhibition with Karl Erickson titled Architecture and Morality. Although initially encouraged by Falkowski, Austin was promptly unfriended and ghosted by Falkowski following his move to graduate school in St. Louis, to Austin’s dismay and regret.
Still Life After Picasso 2014 30x40x2” acrylic on canvas *SOLD Kentucky
Original image sourced from Picasso’s 1922 oil painting Still Life, which captured Austin’s attention while browsing the modern art collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Insolated (after Picabia) 2014 18x36x2” acrylic on canvas *available
My first larger work completed as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago was this skewed, distorted, transposed, and redacted image of Francis Picabia’s 10x10’ oil painting Edtaonisl (Ecclesiastic) from 1913, prominently displayed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection. This work relates to Picabia’s experience aboard a transatlantic ship, en route to the opening of the Armory Show, North America’s first major exhibition of modern art. Picabia was amused by two fellow passengers—a Polish dancer named Stacia Napierskowska and a Dominican priest who could not resist the temptation of watching her rehearse with her troupe. The word Edtaonisl—an acronym made by alternating the letters of the French words étoile (star) and dans[e] (dance), a process analogous to the artist’s shattering and recombining of forms. He subtitled the work Ecclesiastic, hinting at the juxtaposition of the spiritual and the sensual. Austin rearranged the letters again in anagram play to ‘insolated,’ a synonym for ‘enlightened.’
eternal memory 2011 30x72x2” acrylic and oil on canvas *available
This triptych was inspired while my wife was pregnant with our first child in conflation of my earliest fatherly desire to sire three sons whose potentials are depicted in the underpainting of a repeated fetal skeleton specimen initially viewed at Philadephia’s Mütter Museum , meditation on a Hans Hofmann painting from 1962 titled Memoria in Aeternum from the permanent collection at MoMA that I distorted through horizontal elongation, and my obsessive preoccupation with a premature death of my unknown child indemnified by spiritual metamorphosis represented by the anamorphic monarch butterfly in contrast to the skull painted by Hans Holbein (the younger) in his 1533 masterpiece, the Ambassadors.
Skewed Ali 2011 28.5x96x20.5” acrylic on shaped-canvas *available
Anamorphic, distorted derivative of painting originally completed in 2008 titled Big Ali.
Ecce Homo 2011 16x20x1.5” oil on canvas over panel *available
Original image cropped from screenshot of Guido Reni’s painting, Ecce Homo from the National Gallery, London’s collection. Interested in the painting techniques of American painter, Chuck Close, Austin reverse-engineered Close’s printmaking methodology in order to develop his own derivative system for creating mosaic-style paintings from simple marks and geometric symbols meticulously layered upon one another in a sequence of democratic value distribution across the picture plane. Painted with the Gamblin Color’s torrit grey paint produced that year, Austin won Gamblin’s painting competition and was awarded $500 of discounted oil paint supplies.
A Horse of a Different Colour in Motion 2010 24x36x2”each oil on canvas *three SOLD/ nine available
Original images taken from Eadweard Muybridge’s 1878 automatic electro-photographs of Sallie Gardner at a Gallop. It was my first attempt to create a video for an exhibition which was projected and displayed with the twelve ‘colorized’ paintings at the Tim Faulkner Gallery on April 29, 2010.
Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart 2010 30x40x2” oil on canvas *SOLD Virginia
Austin is a direct descendant (*great,great,great,great,great grandson) of Stuart who was ‘the eyes and ears of Gen. Lee’ for the Confederacy during the American Civil War and his father-in-law, Col. Philip St. George Cooke who was ‘the Father of the U.S. Cavalry,’ for the Union. This controversial lineage is a part of Austin’s inherited identity that he continues to digest and reconcile.
This painting is in the permanent collection of the Laurel Hill Museum.
Obama 2009 48x60x2” acryolic on canvas *available
Whitney 2009 16x20x1.5” acrylic on canvas *artist’s collection
Sepia tone portrait of artist’s wife.
Col. Sanders 2009 48x60x2” acrylic on canvas *SOLD Kentucky
Original image cropped from wikipedia page in 2009, no longer available. Interested in the painting techniques of American painter, Chuck Close, Austin reverse-engineered Close’s printmaking methodology in order to develop his own derivative system for creating mosaic-style paintings from simple marks and geometric symbols meticulously layered upon one another in a sequence of democratic value distribution across the picture plane.
Hunter S. Thompson 2009 24x26x2” acrylic on canvas *available
Image based on original March, 1974 photograph captured by Al Satterwhite in Cozumel Mexico.
Rick Pitino 2009 48x60x2” acrylic on canvas *available
Image originally cropped from Pitino’s Wikipedia page in 2009 while the had coach of University of Louisville’s Mens Basketball team. Austin began painting the portrait on April 9, 2009 and on On April 18, 2009, Pitino announced that he was the target of an extortion attempt by Karen Cunagin Sypher, the wife of UofL’s equipment manager, with whom Pitino had an affair with in 2003, resulting in Pitino paying her $3000 dollars to cover an abortion procedure, and later Sypher demanded a payment of vehicles, tuition for her children, and $10 million in order to secure her silence. Austin completed the painting on May 1, 2009.
Austin’s painting of Pitino made headlines in October 2017 when it was photographed being removed from the YUM! center following his termination as a result of an alleged “pay for play” scheme involving the Adidas brand and UofL recruits.
Ali (small) 2009 18x22.5x1.5” acrylic on canvas over panel *SOLD Kentucky
Scaled down derivative of 2008 painting Ali (Big). Now in the permanent collection of the Muhammad Ali Center .
King Louis 2009 24x48x2” acrylic on canvas *SOLD Indiana
Original image cropped from screenshot of Louis Armstrong’s wikipedia page from an uncredited World-Telegram staff photographer win 1957. Interested in the painting techniques of American painter, Chuck Close, Austin reverse-engineered Close’s printmaking methodology in order to develop his own derivative system for creating mosaic-style paintings from simple marks and geometric symbols meticulously layered upon one another in a sequence of democratic value distribution across the picture plane.
Al (Einstein) 2009 48x60x2” acrylic on canvas *SOLD Kentucky
Cropped image screenshot from wikipedia of Orren Jack Turner’s 1947 photograph of Einstein in Princeton, New Jersey. Interested in the painting techniques of American painter, Chuck Close, Austin reverse-engineered Close’s printmaking methodology in order to develop his own derivative system for creating mosaic-style paintings from simple marks and geometric symbols meticulously layered upon one another in a sequence of democratic value distribution across the picture plane.
Ali (Big) 2008 48x60x2” acrylic on canvas *SOLD New York
Original image cropped from a wikipedia screenshot of Ira Rosenberg’s 1967 image of then 25-year-old Muhammad Ali. Interested in the painting techniques of American painter, Chuck Close, Austin reverse-engineered Close’s printmaking methodology in order to develop his own derivative system for creating mosaic-style paintings from simple marks and geometric symbols meticulously layered upon one another in a sequence of democratic value distribution across the picture plane.