Collection: Todd Loyal Rose

Artist statement:

'I paint to exploit the predictable patterns of life and the world as filtered through common human perspective.  These patterns are not just optics but also patterns of construct, behavior, desire, ideals, lifestyle and sentiment.  My intent is to bring a visual interpretive entertainment to our lives, hopefully, and a reminder of the importance of being in and recognizing the present moment in a reality that is constantly evolving and changing form.

While in school in the southwest, I often watched Navajo and Pueblo artists create sand paintings.  They are beautiful, precision artistic creations made of grains of sand in the outdoors where winds will eventually blow them apart, returning the sand to the earth and erasing the artwork.  I had a difficult time watching this as it conflicted with my understandings of intention.  I thought, "How could you be okay watching your work disappear at the same time you are making it?  Doesn't it need to be shared with another to be validated, to have existed?"  Looking back, I understand that it was not the painting that was the intent but rather the moment of transition.  It was the moment of creating or eroding, either way.  To see this sand painting being created and pulled apart simultaneously was merely life in fast forward, it is the pattern of all life.  It is the essence and subject of my work.

Some say life is but a joke.  For those people, my paintings may perhaps be suggestive punchlines.  My work is often titled as plays on words and is, at times, satirical with ridiculous undertones, intended as a mockery of the visual, the lulling, or the intention of life patterns.'

Todd Loyal Rose graduated from Arizona State University in 1994 with a BFA in Graphic Design, including extended studies in architecture and contemporary art history.  He was a commercial designer and digital illustrator in the greater bay area and has resided in Sebastopol in Sonoma County, CA for over 25 years now.