Cult of Aesthetics, 1998

Charles Manson screen print on Clear acetate, 3 watt low voltage lights, 2100’ of wire

"Art Sucks" leather jacket, screen print 

“Charlie Don’t Surf” fabricated surfboard Fleur-de-lis screen printed silk decals
Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore   

"Really" fabricated brass chimes, with microphone, speakers. 
What’s better, the true real or the amped up enhanced version? 

"Beauty" conduit, light bases, colored bulbs
If you spell it and dress it up is it beauty?

“Apocalypse Now” Detail screen print on silk decals

Merwin & Wakeley Galleries, Illinois Wesleyan University
Bloomington, IL

“"Cult of Aesthetics" is like a true - false test on what constitutes ART and a referendum on the belief in and veracity of ART. I was at a point where I had to be really honest and ask myself do I still believe in art? 

Art sticks around because it shares so deeply the beliefs and expressions of all cultures and in all periods of history.  

The Manson Family was a desert commune and cult led by Charles Manson that was active in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group consisted of approximately 50 of his followers who lived an unconventional lifestyle with habitual use of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD.

The Manson Family was a murderous California commune and cult led by Charles Manson in the late 1960's.  Common to the art world and cult world, is that shared unifying beliefs are trans-formative. Art is a visual promise that rides on the wings of beauty.  By calling it beauty does it make it so? Will true, actual and real ring in sound better than chimes enhanced and amplified? Are you a true believer or does Art kind of suck?