Death and its mystery, the consciousness departing the organic vessel and the grotesque process of decay have given the skull, the most obvious Death symbol, a gruesome and disturbing quality in popular culture, though in recent times the skull has become a symbol of rebellion. Rock and Roll, rebellious youth, anarchist ideology, piracy and alternative culture are being mass marketed to the mainstream through skulls as design elements on clothing in every department store now. Unfortunately, this has served to dilute the revolutionary aspects of the symbol and reduce it to a badge, an insignia of the “cool” kids. “Check out my new bedazzled sequin skull purse!” Although the skull has lost it’s punch through overexposure, it remains for me an emblem of the Old Guard of discontent, the revolutionaries.

The Life and Death symbols which are the theme of my “Large Scale Acrylics” series, whether they dance together or simply occupy the same space on the canvas, act as reciprocals enhancing each other’s power as opposite colors are complementary.
“Fiery Nude with Skulls”

I started writing this just after the completion of my acrylic painting, “Dancing Into A Black Hole”. It’s a glimpse into some of my thoughts surrounding the piece. I saved it as a draft because I felt the article was too short and unfinished, but after reading it again, I don’t have anything else I want to say about it, so here it is:

In choosing subject matter for my last two paintings, not including the “Krackoon” movie poster, I went with a couple of simple ideas. One stems from my anticipation of a string of imminent disasters, namely: nuclear meltdowns. Over 400 plants now in operation worldwide are no more secure than the one in Fukushima, if you consider the possibility of electrical failure, which was the cause of the meltdown there. Funny how a major nuclear disaster is hardly spoken about just months since its occurrence. Meanwhile, I just found a post on Enenews.com: “Hundreds of tons of very highly radioactive water found in yet another building at Fukushima plant”, dated today. Meanwhile, entertainment news stories headline the likes of supposed “real news” channels like MSNBC featuring a Chinese Ikea store look-alike ~ “but, sorry, no Swedish meatballs” ~ 2012 solar flares could zap us back into the stone age, electrical grids gone black . . . but why worry?

Just keep dancing! Set your alarms, folks! Wouldn’t wanna miss a day’s work, would ya? Friday’ll be here before you know it. Time to party the problems away . . . until that day comes when the suction pulls us all in. The momentum is building! Can’t you feel it? – like a twister or a flush of toilet water too strong to resist – the Tidy Bowl Man and his little row boat are about to disappear down a whirling vortex. Maybe it’s really just an amusement park ride? Keep an optimistic point of view and just pretend everything’s ok. Maybe someday it’ll all just go away!

Growing up in the 70s along the shore of the Long Island Sound in the Bronx had its advantages. We lived within the city limits, just a bus and a train ride from Manhattan for action and culture, but still far enough from the busy metropolitan area to enjoy some peace and natural beauty. The waterfront neighborhood of Locust Point with its swamp grasses in empty, overgrown lots had a rural feel that had many lost passenger cars stopping for directions, asking, “Can you tell me how to get to the Bronx?” “You’re already there.”, I’d say. Some travelers would think they were magically transported to a small Long Island town or something. This couldn’t possibly be the violent, criminal infested Bronx of the movies and TV? The quiet, tree-lined streets inhabited by generations of working class families were beyond safe and, for the most part, free of police surveillance. As kids, we spent lots of time outdoors in “the weeds”, at the “dead end” and “under the bridge”. The Throgs Neck Bridge had been built and opened in 1961, cutting off a view of the seascape to neighborhood residents. To compensate, the bridge property was designed to include a waterfront park, which was eventually fenced off and officially closed to the public due to Locust Point residents’ complaints about visiting dark-skinned fishermen coming from outside the neighborhood. This made the park pretty much exclusively ours. Even the cops had to open the gates with a key in order to get in while we’d just pop in and out through holes in the fencing (along with the fishermen who continued to come despite the fence and “no fishing” signs).

As years went by, the green fields and park areas surrounding the bridge were converted to parking lots and storage facilities for Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority equipment. The empty lots were filled with housing developments and even as we all got older and bought cars to go hang out elsewhere, we watched as the shoreline filled with condos. Any waterfront property that could be bought up by real estate developers, would be. Of course, most people shrug this off with the comment, “That’s progress”, but something unexpected started to happen in these neighborhoods once bordered by swamplands and patches of green, uncontrolled growth. The animals who lived there had become displaced from their homes and were moving, more and more, into the residents’ yards, under sheds and into crawlspaces.

My old friend and fellow Locust Point resident, Jerry Landi, saw this growing animal problem as the basis for a story which he would later turn into a film with his partner, Producer Anthony Debellis. The filmmakers of Amuck Duck Productions bring us the story of one such creature . . . “KRACKOON”! A raccoon driven from its home by over-development, accidentally ingests a massive dose of crack cocaine and wreaks havoc on the neighborhood characters who contributed to his condition. The film is a comedic look at some current neighborhood problems but also addresses some serious issues like child abuse and government corruption. The entire “KracKrew” film team is made up of friends and neighbors in the Bronx. The locations, the actors, soundtrack musicians … the entire production is Bronx-born.

I was born at Westchester Square Hospital in the Bronx and I’m the make-up effects and “monster maker” for Krackoon. It was my first experience working on a film in this capacity. In 1984 I was an extra along with Jerry and other members of the George A. Romero Fan Club in “Day Of the Dead”. Romero, being a Bronx boy himself, was happy to hear that we came out to Pittsburgh for the shoot and took us all to dinner after a long day on the set. What a great guy and an excellent experience! . . . but I’ll have to write more about this at another time. His “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead” are a couple of our favorite movies and the 80s were a great time for Horror and gore movies. We’d go to theaters to see such classics as “The Prowler”, “Maniac” and “Basketcase” on the big screen and laugh as others screamed at the over-the-top use of blood and gore effects. There’s a charm in these low-budget films that no amount of money can create. The filmmakers’ love for Horror, shock, gore and blood comes through in these movies and there’s a sick sense of humor present in them that we identify with. After all, in a sick, violent society full of irony, we have to laugh at times just to keep what’s left of our sanity!

Krackoon has a lot of the same qualities of the older cult classics we love and grew up with. And did I forget to mention . . . lots of face-ripping gore! I had fun working with Jerry, Anthony and the rest of the crew, but I don’t think any of us expected the level of success the film has attained so far. In the past year, Krackoon won “Best Horror Feature” of the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival and “Best Cult Feature” in its Los Angeles counterpart. Recently Krackoon drew a large, enthusiastic audience at the “Another Hole In the Head” festival (part of “Indiefest”) in San Francisco. Jerry told me that people showed up the way they used to at the old midnight shows like “Rocky Horror Picture Show” with props, coonskin caps and homemade Punk-style magic marker t-shirts with slogans like “Krackoon Lives!” Now that’s the spirit that Krackoon was made in! Made for the love and fun of it and to be enjoyed by people who want to have FUN!

Above Photo: Producer Anthony DeBellis and Director Jerry Landi

So with all of this in mind, I came up with a movie poster idea. I went for something of a mix of old Horror/Sci-Fi poster and comic book cover styles and did a large scale acrylic painting based on scenes from the movie. I’m now starting to work on sculpted facial parts for the Krackoon monsters in the sequel. Stay tuned for poster availability and more Krackoon info – Visit KRACKOON.COM

Known to American TV and movie audiences as Indians, Injuns, Native Americans . . . and to themselves, “The People”, have been a source of inspiration to me since I was a kid. In movies I’d see them, sitting on the rug in my grandparents house on a Sunday afternoon, scalping white settlers on the screen, in wars with the cavalry and as goofy cartoon characters in Warner Brothers cartoons. Beyond all of the negative stereotyping of these people, I saw the simplicity in their way of life as appealing. How cool to live in a teepee. It’s like going on a camping trip . . . every day! Cool weapons: tomahawks, bows and arrows, spears. Cool ways of getting around: canoes and horses. What a way of life!

As I entered my teens, I realized that the society I was being indoctrinated into had many restrictions and rules that didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t happy with the direction my parents and the “world” I lived in were pushing me and I was frustrated with people. When I’d tell them how I’d like to live and what I saw as being wrong with the set up of the society at large, they’d give me a lame, “That’s just the way it IS” shrug and I wasn’t taking that as a serious answer. No more than I’d accept “because I said so” as a good reason to obey my parents. But what alternative was there for a kid living within this structure, a suburban home, going to high school . . . where was I to go? “The woods” were my only hope and I would plan my futile attempt to escape only to be found and dragged back home. I probably would have starved somewhere in a remote forest anyway. It’s not easy to survive in the woods after being raised like a domesticated animal.

If only I had been raised by wolves! . . . or INDIANS, I’d wish. Such a tragedy that the natives of this continent were all but wiped out. Those who weren’t killed in the European settlers’ genocidal wars were made to assimilate into their culture. I decided that “Manifest Destiny” and all of the talk of “freedom” here in the United States was really about imperialism and that the Indians way of life HAD TO be destroyed in order for the new country to be able to call itself the “Land of the Free”. True Freedom had to go in order for second best to step in its place to become number one. Sure, the founders of our country wrote down some great rules to live by, but the ruling structure and European “civilization” with its towns that grow into cities would become increasingly corrupt, overpopulated and polluted. As cancer rates rise, political scandals become so common that the public is now bored by them and weather changes and natural disasters cause mass destruction, I can’t help but wonder if it’s the Natural System’s payback to a society that not only disrespects the land, but eliminates cultures that live along with Nature.

“Riders In Ruins” places the indigenous people in the future ruins of a city built by those who conquered them and took the land they inhabited in coexistence with Nature for 1000s of years.

After completing 19 paintings in my “Large Scale Acrylics” series, I decided to take a break and do something different, but similar at the same time. With the exception of the first 3 “Large” paintings which were done in Paris and influenced mainly by my European honeymoon experiences, the series are all brightly colored with skeletons and female figures, mostly dancers, as the subjects. I spent three weeks at Seen Studios, Paris workspace of my old friend Richie “SEEN” Mirando. I had a great time working alongside Richie and the other Seen Family artists there, bouncing ideas around and choosing a direction for my future paintings. Richie suggested the larger scale to take advantage of the studio space with it’s high ceilings. I decided on a “Life & Death” theme with the dancers, full of life with an accompanying skull or skeleton as Death, always looming. This symbolism is lost on a lot of people, since skulls these days have become a very common popular image, especially in clothing design. My favorite iconic image, the Skull & Crossbones has been reduced to a sequined cartoon image and a symbol of a blockbuster CGI-fest of a movie series. For a few years this phenomenon had me shying away from the use of skulls in my work, but after discussing this with Richie, we both agreed that none should be more privileged to include the skull in their artworks than we who have celebrated it since childhood!

With the series in full bloom, I decided recently to do a painting that incorporated the same style and painting technique used in the Large Scale Acrylics. Only with this new painting, I chose to go half the size, 40″ X 50″, and pick a current topic as inspiration. The Fukushima disaster was fresh in the news and brought back memories of the 3 Mile Island meltdown of 1979. What better use for my beloved skulls and skeletons than to express my feelings about nuclear power and its dangers? The mummies are referenced from a photo of a hillside in the Philippines and the cooling towers are situated like those at 3 Mile Island. The idea for the “double-yolk daisies” comes from a documentary that showed photos of deformed daisies growing at the beginning of the fallout path of 3 Mile Island.

The window in my kitchen has a view of 2 bridges, the Throgs Neck and the Whitestone. As I’m sitting at my small kitchen table each morning, I look out and enjoy the view from our 5th floor Bronx apartment. Sipping strong coffee and smoking cigarette tobacco from my pipe, I notice the progress of the budding and new leaves growing on the neighborhood trees as they slowly obscure my bridges. It’s good to know that winter is over (with the exception of a possible freak snow storm. These days, ya never know.) and some of the best weather of the year is ahead. I tend to appreciate the Fall more than the Spring since I really can’t stand hot weather and breathe much easier when the Summer’s over. You can always put more clothes ON in the Winter. The Summer just makes me wanna peel my skin off.

It was Easter Sunday today . . . the day the Christian religion chose to allocate for their resurrection celebration. Funny thing is how so many people who call themselves Christians also take part in ancient Pagan Spring fertility rituals on this day . . . the bunnies and eggs . . . then there’s the chocolate with its stimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain. Even more funny to me are the reactions I get from people when I bring up the Pagan thing. They either don’t want to hear it or challenge me on it and say things like, “Well, the two holidays just happen to fall at the same time.” C’mon, even the name “Easter” is taken from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eoster, and it’s celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon that follows or falls on the Spring Equinox. The date the holiday falls on is dictated by the MOON.

Anyway, as I sat, staring out the window, this is the stuff that was going through my head . . . along with worrying about the time this day will take away from my new painting. Spending time with family is great and happens infrequently, but I’m really becoming obsessed with working lately and anything that gets between me and my canvas tickles a piece of my brain that has a little neon “ENEMY INTRUDER” sign flashing in the darkness. I am now working on another Surrealist painting after a few portrait jobs and even writing this entry in my new magazine section is feeling like an intrusion upon my painting time . . . so keep an eye out for a painting called, “Mummies with Double-Yolk Daisies”, coming soon to RichRethorn.com – The colors are at least as bright as the Easter eggs I didn’t bother to color this year would have been. It features a line of mummies sitting shoulder to shoulder in a field of daisies whose centers grew mutated by the leaking nuclear plant cooling towers in the background. The technique is the same as the “Large Scale Acrylics” I’ve been working on this past year, but this one and the next will have more punch to their messages.

Lastly, I’m in the process of deciding which paintings will be included in my first three giclee prints to be available through this website. Take a look at the Large Scale Acrylic Series gallery and respond here with your top painting picks!

Thanks! – Rich