Laurie says:
I went to Jaime Cortez‘s graduation reception at UC Berkeley a few weeks ago. The reception was at the Berkeley Art Museum and was the last day of the graduate students’ exhibition. Then I had Tee’s benefit, two shows, and a bad cold, so I’m just putting this up now.
I really loved Jaime’s work and one of his pictures from the exhibition and his catalogue text is below. The title is “Another Hero – WolveRican 2006,” It’s Prismacolor pencil, graphite, gouache, collage on paper and is 42 x 58 inches.
Here’s what Jaime said about this piece:
The urge to project heroic power is almost irresistible to all men at some point in their lives. Trying to appear heroic is like trying to be cool, making it a perfect setup for tragicomedy.
Sometimes, when we play the hero, there is a fool’s gold shimmer of power, defiance, and virility that sparkles against the duller backdrop of our realities.
A little boy dons a towel for a cape and jumps off the roof.
He believes.
A recent high school graduate stuffs his birth certificate into his backpack and steps into an army recruiting office.
Someone’s got to do it.
A weekend warrior dons his Air Jordan sneakers and at some point in the afternoon, when his game is on and he sinks the shot just so, he willl feel himself become unto Jordan, a split-legged angel of competence. He lands, hears a fleshy pop in his knee, and hobbles through the remainder of the game.
Represent.
These drawings map out the zone between how we hope to be and how we really are.