For the past nineteen years, 1992 - 2011, I've investigated the relationship between painting and photography through making paintings that engage photography as a hidden, painted element. Since the photography literally exists beneath the surface, and not through grid or projection, there is a strange conceptual ambiguity about the frozen moment of a person, place, or thing lying underneath the interpretive nature of the painting process on the surface. The content of my work focuses on conceptions of transcendence, moments in collective popular culture, and sharable life realities. I start a painting by choosing images that speak to one another. I configure the position of the images, glue and seal them to the panel, and begin painting. The intuitive and conceptually strategic placement of the images offers me a point of departure that allows exploration/interpretation through the painting process, which in turn allows me to investigate conceptual meaning. I take great interest in developing and resolving content based formal relationships that arise during the painting process. I consider these paintings to be open investigative narratives. My hope is to provoke a sense of curiosity within the viewer, similar to the curiosity I feel when making the painting. I try to make a painting that has strong visual and conceptual engagement. John McNamara

November 2006 - March 2007

“Second Life”

This painting deals with the ever expanding digital game world and how that world relates to our “3D reality daily life.” The game in question is called “Second life” and it’s goal is for the player to establish a life within the game, with the payoff being the continued living of that life. Along the way, gamers can amass worldly possessions and live a second life, perhaps a more interesting existence than what they experience in their everyday lives. One enticing aspect of this game is that real world businesses and news agencies have set up shop in this virtual world. This has allowed players to convert the game’s virtual money into real world dollars. Because of this, the IRS has been investigating ways to tax players who make money from playing “Second Life.” My primary engagement with this virtual world stems from the question: where will the continuing blending and blurring of what constitutes reality lead us?