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Artist Statement
Why the hell not be an artist, I mean being a hopeless
idealist I’m bound to be let down in this dog eat dog world, unless
I can fight back and what better way to fight back than within the fringes
of society, Kazah! I say, and onward with the battle. Through my rigid
education at art school I was constantly placed in discussions of high
versus low art and my experimentation with this dialogue often ended up
in the dismissal of my work as lesser than both. This has affected my
ability to push buttons through multiple vantage points while taking into
account fruit fly attention spans. This passionate viewer distaste began
the arduous crusade of attempting to blur the lines of art making through
satiric observation while giving stuff away.
My fruit fly attention span is now kicking in proving I’m
not better than nobody. What was I talking about again, Oh yeah, yeah,
my work. In my work I attempt to combat social injustice experimenting
with traditional documentary film making, installation, education, and
new media, I explored my person and I’m a jaded bastard with a heart
(a big heart) that's real sick of computers because I sit in front of
them allot for development pertaining to Co-op Image (the not-for profit
arts education organization I founded with my sister two years ago). So
now I do what I used to make fun of my friends for, I paint objects that
take up space in an already cluttered world.
Instead
of rambling about how I got where I am and who I massaged to get there,
(I've been told I've got magic fingers(I think it's because they're fat
finger like little sausages))I just assume to offer you my works at a
reasonable price so I don’t have to take them home with me.
P.S. Contradiction rocks
Everyone
needs (oh,wait no one asked) a personal statement
so I paraphrased some other guy's who is also named Mike
Bancroft thanks Mike.
Depending
on your viewpoint, I am a community organizer, educator, videographer,
mess maker, ne'er-do-well, bon vivant wannabe, who happens to waste some
time scribbling thoughts and then thrusting them upon unsuspecting viewers.
I have fairly good genes, might be one of the last few people in North
America who truly appreciates the subtleties of television, can play a
mean game of "Name That Acronym!" I am fluent in restaurant
spanish, and can translate academic, scientific and Defense Department
lingo into one word jargon. I know that there is a difference between
imply and infer, gourmet and gourmand, and that there are times to use
brackets and times to use parens (I prefer parens)– but I often
don't follow the rules if they get in the way of creativity. I like rich
black coffee, mint ice cream, dark 151 proof Jamaican rum, sensual women,
fish, long sunsets (but prefer sun rises), canoes, sunfish, the smell
of coconut oil and bug spray, and anything made out of wood. I am prone
to having long moments of mirth and ecstasy.
I adamantly believe that all great literature is framed with travel, discovery,
adventure, or great physical or moral peril as the background. So let's
just say I travel to gather material for various, observations, creations,
and ramblings that happen to come to mind – reliving and telling
the tale in a tradition which spans the wanderings of MF Doom, Atom and
his Package, Saul Williams, and Jeff Mangum. Barring great street stories,
I spend my mornings dreaming and evenings mining the streets' great wealth
of potential stories and characters, and trying to keep my good friend
and alter ego, Ol' basalt, from making a complete rocky fool of himself
in polite company.
ARGG!
~Mike Bancroft
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