series: 'connections'

The following series of paintings, which I completed between 2003 and 2005, was inspired by my experiences on two internet chat sites in the early 2000s, one being an official fan chat site of the rock band, the Who, and the second, a privately operated, non-official Who fan chat site.  The following paintings represent, in their entirety, my expression of the communications between people or personalities on those sites at the time.  

It is also worth mentioning that Pete Townshend, the primary songwriter and driving force behind the Who, has had an ongoing project titled 'Lifehouse', from as early as 1971, which I have referenced in this series.  'Lifehouse' is a story in which all of the people in the story are directly connected to a computer via a special suit they wear, which controls every event, or experience, that takes place in their lives.  Interesting thing is, Pete envisioned this idea long before it actually came to exist in our world today.  Our current reality indeed has us constantly and inextricably intertwined with technology, with the internet its driving force, tirelessly and relentlessly influencing us, tempting us, and convincing us of what we need to do, what we need to own, and even how we should look, thus dictating to us who we need to be.  

'Lifehouse' is not only a story, but a large collection of songs that sparked my imagination back in the early 1980s, which was split up and subsequently released on several different albums over the years.  This happened because Pete's 'Lifehouse' concept was shelved back in the early 1970's due to mixed reactions of the idea from other people working with the Who at that time.

Regardless, I am posting this series for the first time ever since its completion.  I kept it off of my websites on purpose, as it was a private set of artworks that I did not wish to share until now.  Please bear in mind that these are digitized photos of 35mm slide film, so converting them resulted in some graininess.

For the record, I made repeated attempts to share my work with Pete Townshend, to which I received no response or feedback whatsoever.  That having been said, I decided to proudly, and finally, share this series of paintings on my website with the world.