"Checkbook Man, Variation No.2," © 1997, Keith Fox.
7" high x 5" wide. Watercolor.
The Dr. Teresa Satterfield Private Collection, Ann Arbor, MI.
"Checkbook Man, Variation No.3," © 1997, Keith Fox.
7" high x 5" wide. Watercolor.
The Dr. Teresa Satterfield Private Collection, Ann Arbor, MI.
"Checkbook Man, Variation No.4," © 1998, Keith Fox.
14" high x 11" wide. Watercolor.
"Checkbook Man, Variation No.5," © 1998, Keith Fox.
14" high x 11" wide. Watercolor.
"Checkbook Man, Variation No.6," © 1998, Keith Fox.
14" high x 11" wide. Watercolor. (*)
(*) Selected to be included in the
For more information please contact:
Helen Gundlach, Project Curator
225 NW 14th Avenue.
"Seeing Money" exhibit in Portland, Oregon,
May 6 - June 6, 1999.
"Seeing Money"
A project of the
Portland Old Town Arts and Culture Foundation,
a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization.
(Portland Opera Rehersal Space)
Portland, Oregon 97210-5599.
telephone: (503) 223-9042
fax: (503) 223-7742
helen@spiritone.com
"Seeing Money" is an art event designed to explore the role of art and money in culture.
"Seeing Money" features artists who use money as the medium or thematic content.
A partial listing of Seeing Money participating artists is as follows:
Bob Anderson, Paul Arensmeyer, Ross Palmer Beecher, Ray Beldner, J.S.G. Boggs, Jeremy Borsos, Robin Clark, Helen Devol, Kane Do, Devin Laurence Field, Flechemuller, Tim Fowler, Keith Fox, Josh Green, Max Grover, Christian Hooker, Ursula M. Kammer-Fox, Lisa Kokin, Yvonne Kosun, Jim Leong, Margo Lovelace, Kenna Moser, Tom Otterness, Brad Rogers, Michael Speaker, Oriane Stender, Sam Van Aken, Andy Warhol, Angelina Wooley, and Nancy Wordern.
(*) Likewise, two of my works from a new series of paintings whose thematic content is money, entitled "The Checkbook Man Collection," have been juried into the exhibition by the "Seeing Money" project curator Helen Gundlach, No. 393, 25 NW 23rd Street, Suite 6, Portland OR 97210-5599. One is mixed media, while the other work is watercolor. May 6 — June 6, 1999.
FOR THE
The history of the ghoul named Checkbook Man began in 1992 in a university department of art. As a graduate student, I created the first rendition of this imaginary ghoul through the technique of mixed media in an independent study in painting in which I was exploring the artistic process of assemblage, which is the fitting together of diverse elements within one artistic composition. First, I mixed the two media of latex house paint and oil paint to create this very first rendition which measures 36 by 36 inches. Next, the diverse artistic elements that I fitted together by way of the above mixed media included the following: portraiture, abstraction, calligraphy, symbolism, special effects with color, and the subject of personal debt. "Personal debt?" you might ask. Yes. At the time, I was borrowing money to pay for my tuition and had gone into significant debt. So the subject of debt was very much on my mind. In fact, at that time, I viewed debt as some sort of a ghoulish phenomenon and attempted to anthropomorphize it artistically as an abstract ghoul or evil spirit that delighted in the loathsome problem of poverty. Five years later, in 1997, while still working to pay off my student loans, I decided to base a series of watercolors on this 1992 mixed media painting of an abstract ghoul.
Who is the imaginary ghoul named Checkbook Man? He is a personal checking account that has transmuted into an evil spirit who robs graves and delights in the morbid situation of poverty. He views life as a book containing blank checks issued by a bank to be used to pay off a debt. Also, he views hard work and self-discipline as the only means to earn these wages that are to be deposited into one's personal checking account.
In his grotesque self-portraits, it can be seen that he has only one large eyeball whose pupil is shaped like the price of 99 cents and whose socket has a triangular shape. He gazes at people through this bizarre eyeball and then informs them through calligraphic text that he is concerned only about his own bills. Furthermore, his body is made of cash register receipts, copyright notices, a dollar sign, and a price tag—all of the things that are of concern to the financially-struggling individual trying to survive and prosper as an art student.
Finally, his overall configuration is that of an arrow pointing toward what might be savings lying somewhere above each picture's frame yet to be realized in this medium of watercolor that has been executed in a grotesque style.
As a member of Generation X—which is the generation that was born between 1961 and 1972—I am now creating a collection of fantastic watercolor paintings in which appear renditions of an imaginary ghoul named the Checkbook Man in order to mythicize my college debt—all in an attempt to be optimistic about how I might successfully return to lenders money loaned to me to pay for my education in the fine arts.
Keith Fox's Home Page
Seeing Money Show (unofficial)
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