Artist Statement: Brad Reagan

Brad Reagan: Octopus, 2008; metal, expanding foam, sculpy, wood knobs, wire, googley eyes, acrylic, shellac, foam, and celluclay. Courtesy of the artist.

The development that takes place when nature is influenced by culture is what drives my artistic explorations. These paintings and sculptures work together as a family to narrate a condition about growing up in the rural south. This personal landscape is both influenced and separate from that of my generation. Motifs such as floral wallpaper and houseplants are used to allude to the domestic landscape. Imagery involving the ocean is more closely related to a conceptual seascape. The sea not only deals with ideas of travel, separation, and longing, but also the violent rhythms of storms and sea creatures. Though there is a light side to my work with the use of bright colors and comical googley eyes, there is also a subverted dark side. Innuendos and the consistent use of black allude to nighttime's psychological and biological desires. It is the shameful, hidden desires and thoughts that many deal with while coming of age that influence the concept of this work. The combination of various subjects and materials provide a space for both the sincere and the perverse to coexist.

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