Advertising for the Consumption of Our Selves

 

Advertising for the Consumption of Our Selves exhibits a new direction in McClinton's paintings, which represent her production of the last year. Her current work is an exploration of the relationship of personality to society: specifically the resulting conflict between the spiritual self and the physical organism. The works function as a conceptual manifestation connecting found imagery, realism, and cartoon surrealism.

 

McClinton's works are powerfully executed with sensitivity to form, color vibration and texture. Formally the works have two aspects; one linear-graphic and one natural-organic.

 

McClinton's work examines the nature of dualistic reality, which considers the individual in two parts: the physical self and the inner being/consciousness/or soul. The inner being is considered to be a larger, continuous presence that exists before and after the physical self. If this perpetual aspect is truly innate, it helps to explain the relief experienced vicariously through entities that deny the primacy of the physical vehicle: for example, the undeniable magnetism of the self-destructive persona, and the marketing appeal of food mascots ingesting themselves.

 

Summer McClinton, born in Boulder, Colorado, is currently living in New York City. McClinton was educated in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and New York where she studied Graffiti, Oil Painting, Printmaking and Comic Book Arts. She is the recipient of many awards and has had her work published in numerous forms. McClinton has exhibited her works in solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions around the United States. Works by Summer McClinton are in numerous private collections. Random House is currently publishing 150 pages of McClinton's drawings as the latest American Splendor (H. Pekar) novel.