FOREWORD
by Billy Dean Hester
In this body of work, Steven Boone draws from the same creative heritage as French painters Honoré Daumier and Marcel Duchamp. Daumier created caricatures that Charles Baudelaire called “naturally colorful,” whereas Duchamp portrayed an emotional place he referred to as a “corridor of humor.” Boone’s evocations of mood in Hangups exist in the fluid moment of ironic recognition. Playing upon the contradictions of life with an openness that raises them above caricature, they engage and challenge the shibboleths of our society, inviting us to reflect on our inner experiences with suspension.
Boone’s ability to hear his inner voice and express it on canvas has enabled him to articulate a wide range of emotions. While in their midst, we float on reveries in a corridor where the Scream of Edvard Munch becomes the Howl of Allen Ginsberg and the contradictions in our own heads form a play with words and images. Set free from the compulsions of riddance, we arrive at the joy of acceptance.
These paintings of Boone’s are portraiture rendered with such courage, insight, and humor that they prompt us to loosen, if only slightly, the traps we have created for ourselves. Journeying into the subconscious where we may dredge up the sediment of our own humanity, we can then smile, and say, “Oh yes, that’s true about me.” |
