ROBERT G. HANNA
These paintings are the result of my own invention, a technique that’s based on addition and subtraction and transcends the common product of either process. The addition involves the accumulation of sometimes as many as 30 layers of paint to the supporting surface, each layer representing facets of the historical drama of my life, my heritage, my politics and the substances with which I have personally wrestled, oscillating between dependence and liberation.
My Coca-Cola paintings, for example started with a layer in homage to my first sweet, carbonated addiction, covered with a layer of my second addiction symbolized by the dollar sign, covered with more Coke and then more money and then more Coke, each layer in various shades, until the layering creates a density, not unlike the psychic weight of such addictions. Then — the inevitable subtraction process begins to tear away the veils, revealing new perceptions of historical layers and experiences through grinding and sanding, sometimes harsh abrasive revelations that lead to new points of view, previously unseen abstractions and complexities. Other paintings explore various juxtapositions, layering Coke with the phallic shape of meth pipes, religious crosses and the graffiti “tag” RGH, with which I sign and profoundly own each addiction as well as each resurrection as mine, and mine alone.
I think of my paintings as sculptures in that the layering and sanding process creates new dimensions of experience and visual adventure. At one point I found myself looking through a magnifying glass at one of my paintings and discovered that the sanding process actually revealed layers “between” the layers I had painted. These layers appeared to be infinite in number like the mathematically infinite number of possible points found between any two given points. These layers revealed new colors made from the combination of colors used in any two adjacent layers. I also noticed that the coarse sanding cathartically scarred the surface of the paint and the finer sanding left a delicate circular pattern resembling the molecular structure of DNA. Because these details could only be seen through magnification, I hypothesize that they alter the viewers’ experience on a subconscious level, a level that, after all, is the ultimate “other dimension” for man incarnate, a dimension where an infinite number of symbols unite us in the collective unconscious.
Welcome to my art. May you step into it and discover your own other dimensions and leave expanded and transformed.
