Art 21 Segment: Raymond Pettibon

Raymond Pettibon in “Humor”

Art 21 Segment

Raymond Pettibon may just be one of the most interesting artists I have become aware of.  In good ways he is funny, because it engages the viewer.  In bad ways, he seems a little unorganized and just thoughtlessly creates work whether people find it funny or not.

Pettibon likes to take humor and create images to express himself.  He does not feel the need to be serious but does not want to offend or hurt anyone.  He uses humor and making people laugh to get and keep them interested.  He creates simple imagery that you are confused about at first, and then your eye wanders looking for a deeper meaning and you find text.  Sometimes he has a sentence or two, sometimes only a word.  These texts, being a single word or a phrase, enlighten us completely about what we are looking at.  I find it fascinating that he keeps such a messy studio where he can barely walk around, and he finds that to meet his standards of “organized”.  This plays into his artwork to me.  

I see his artwork as untidy, unorganized, yet intentional and very thought-out.  He is interesting to me because his work has more of a comical aspect on it, and by that I mean his work reminds me of comic strips in a newspaper, or even a funny little e-card that you find on the internet.  He does not need a perfect image to get him going, nor even a steady idea.  He can just create!  That is so marvelous to me.  I usually need a reference photo or something physically in front of me to get my thoughts and paint going.  Raymond Pettibon just makes everything up as he goes along.  We are different types of artists in that I am more of a realist and he is more cartoon-oriented, so I did not really respect him at first.  But after looking at his collection for a while I realized that he probably could do everything that I can, but he does not show it off because he is interested in something deeper.  This gives me ideas about how I can start trying to make my work meaningful and connecting with my audience, or even just expressing myself better.

Pettibon says that he creates work looking to give people either a short, quick laugh, or to make them feel a certain way.  To me, it is his way of expressing his opinion and how he feels about certain things.  I say this because looking through his work I personally felt like I was bantering with the artist about funny or not-so-funny things.  This created a relationship between me, the art, and the artist.  That is a very powerful tool that no one else I have critiqued, viewed, or met has pulled off.