Its one of the coolest things about life, when you tap into something or someone who makes you feel like, who you really are.  Lovers and friends, and small children that don’t scare away, make me feel this way.  Sean Christopher’ s work made me feel this way from the moment I saw it.  It was canvas painted “Candy Corn”, and I had to have it.  It sucked me in, until I forced my self away from it.  But I never stayed away long.  I’d visit it on line and my mouse would hover above the “buy now” button, but I could never pull the trigger.  Unfortunately the power of Sean’s work was no match for that of my empty pockets.

This was when his paintings were still nearly affordable for a working stiff like me.  This was when you could still find Sean’s work unsold, not because it wasn’t brilliant, because it was, but because it takes time for the court of public opinion to reach a fair and just decision.
Sean’s work is worth every penny it fetches, and I bow down to him, and pray that I can one day feed my family doing what I love, no, doing what I was meant to do.
I’m not even going to pretend to try and describe Sean’s work, with an understanding of it that you will have, once you’ve see it for yourself.

GlubDub :
What's the story behind the triptych, “Strangers of the Night - Exchanging Glances" that you showed at Lineage?

Sean Christopher:
Well, That particular painting(s) has a lot of symbolism.  Each symbol stands alone as an object, but when you put them all together in this composition, it has a narrative (tells a story).  The symbolism should be thought of like a road map, with the meaning(s) as your final destination.  In this work, I have composed it to be left up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the "meaning."  For me personally, it's about relationships.  In the painting you have all of these "characters" looking at one another, but not REALLY looking at one another, or interacting outwardly towards each other.  In other words, it is like any social situation where a group of people are together, but never REALLY together.  Of course there is much more to this piece than that, but I'll leave it up to each individual to draw their own conclusions.

GD:
What types of relationships have you witnessed and experienced that lead to you to put it to canvas?

SC:
"Strangers of the Night" is a composite of the many different types of people, personalities and identities that are wrapped up in one individual.  The trick is that each of these traits are so different than the others, they seemingly have nothing in common, or don't even want to know each other.  The truth though is that since they all come from the same place they all share a commonality.  Its not until a dialog is created between all the "characters" that a bond can form and eventually join them all together.  All the characters see each other, and are aware of one another, they just don't know how to be together, and share the commonality they all have in common...self.  Its that moment that you look into the mirror or are about to fall asleep, and you think to yourself , "Who am I? What am I?"

GD:
When we first spoke at that Lineage show, you said it was a pivotal piece.  In what way?

SC:
I believe it was the most "honest" piece I had done up to that point.  I laid a lot of myself on the line, albeit somewhat "coded", the information about me is still there in the work.  In doing such an honest piece of work, and putting it into the public's eye, it resulted in a certain freedom.  Up to this point, I was either not willing to expose myself so directly, or even sure if I wanted to!  I'm certainly glad that I did, because it opened up another chapter in my work. This  led me to the new body of work that I'm exhibiting at the Corey Helford Gallery in April 08'.  It's going to be an amazing show!

GD:
What other themes have you explored or purged from your soul in your work?

SC:
As far as themes go, I seem to hit on a few basic ones repeatedly.  The theme of love, unrequited love, lost love, and new love, show up quite a bit throughout my body of work.  Loneliness is another big one that rears it's head from time to time.  The last one that shows up a little less often, but is quickly gaining speed and momentum, is Spirituality. All of these themes are reflective of my own experiences, and are a way for me to try and understand "me" even more.  As I progress though, these themes teach me, not only about myself, but others.  Basically, you name it, I've explored, purged or am still working on it!  I guess that's the beauty of being human, we are always in the processes of life (exploration, changing, adapting, purging, etc.).

I met Alan at Starbucks in Red Bank, when they still had live music there, when artists and musicians still scurried around the town, before the furs and cigars in suits, crushed them like roaches and beetles with the bottom of a shoe.  Alan played there on busy weekend nights in the front window of the coffee shop, and would loop these trippy guitar riffs together and play against them, sounding like a small symphony.  Alan looped.  He liked looping and was always doing it.  He was loopy and liked playing with himself over and over again in pubic.   Alan’s music had wings and would lift off and circle the air above us, dropping tiny bombs filled with color, on our heads.  The bombs would burst and the colors would blast against everything until everyone around was covered in it.

I saw a drawing of Alan floating around one day, something he had drawn himself.  He’d captured himself perfectly, exactly as I had always seen him from the inside out.  The drawing looked like him, but there was more.  You could feel his essence enter through your eyes, and crash into your belly.  Alan plays whatever hand life deals him, But he always seems to get the last laugh on life, goosing it whenever it isn’t looking. Alan is good at laughing at the mountains of adversity that lay at his feet.  Alan is good at making us laugh with him, even when its at his own expense.

Alan and I always talked about him turning his rough and raw scribbles of himself into a comic or an animated cartoon.  So we present to you the makings of just that. I recently sent Alan a link of Glubdub, and he was impressed enough to respond with admiration, that someone had the guts to build a place for the self-expressive, in a “world of poo”.

View the "World of Poo" episodes by clicking on the links below:

Episode 1 - "My name is Alan"

Episode 2  - "The Carpool"

Episode 3 - "Religion" 

We watched That One Guy assemble the Magic Pipe in front of our eyes, before the show started.  And then he began. He dragged his bow across that monster of an instrument, and it cried out in mournful melody. It wept something beautiful from hits lungs that mesmerized and aroused at the same time.  When he finally hypnotized us into blissful sorrow, That 1 Guy launched into a four-limbed assault on the monster, and thunder and lightening erupted from it. He’s up on stage, slapping and stomping the shit out of his Magic Pipe, looking like he’s having the time of his life. It's no wonder the crowd sounded three times its size.  

That One Guy is part man and part machine, and by night’s end, it was hard to tell where one part ended and the other began. His infectious rhythms popped inside me like I’d swallowed a pinball machine and popcorn maker, and the two battled it out inside my belly for supremacy.  It took every bit of me to hold the camera steady through it all.  What he laid on us that night was pure and powerful. It could move a dead man’s feet across the floor, or make him sit up with an overwhelming sense of joy, and smile.