Shield Your Eyes

The items we discard reveal much about us, emblematic of a pervasive throwaway culture that devalues objects, people, and dreams. A decaying boat in a field was once someone’s aspiration. Now, that dream lies abandoned, never to sail again, symbolizing forsaken aspirations and the fading American Dream, with wealth disparity growing and the middle class disappearing.

This dream’s facade persists, but its core is eroded by corporate and governmental actions, masked by alluring advertisements. Americans unknowingly give up their money, privacy, and autonomy to consumerism. This realization is frustrating, but often leads to apathy, as the system seems too entrenched to challenge. Discussing these frustrations can alienate others, pushing one to distractions like social media, entertainment, and various digital experiences. Engaging with reality has become optional, with many escaping into fantasy, allowing corporations and governments more freedom to exploit the disengaged masses.

BIO
Hunter Bailey is an American artist based in Salt Lake City. A recent graduate of the University of Utah College of Fine Arts, Bailey works in acrylic and oil painting. Having been raised in a small mountain town in Colorado, his art has been informed by the forgotten and abandoned, the underutilized, and the grimy. He is also influenced by American and European Literature and punk, hardcore, and emo music. He uses a combination of flatness and realism to depict landscapes, industrial machines, advertisements, and memetic imagery. Bailey’s work is concerned with consumerism, nihilism, and meaning.

ARTIST STATEMENT
What we throw away says a lot about us. A boat left to rot in a field was once someone’s dream. Someone worked a lot and saved money to buy that boat. Now that dream is sitting in a field and will never sail again. A land-bound boat is a symbol of a dream that has been abandoned. In a broader sense, that boat can represent the abandonment of the American Dream.
The veneer of this dream remains intact, yet its essence is being siphoned away by corporations and governments, cloaked in the seductive vernacular of advertising. Americans, entangled in a web of persuasion, are unwittingly surrendering their wealth, privacy, and sovereignty upon the altar of consumerist psychology.

Painting is a way for me to avoid apathy. I am painting the frustration and confusion I see in the world. I am painting the abandoned dreams of the people who history will not remember. I am using the language of flatness because it is characteristic of advertising. If advertising is the language of the establishment, I hope to co-opt it to help my viewers connect my work and the imagery used to sell them a false reality.