"Happiness Is Easy"

"Happiness is Easy" is an installation of painting and sculpture that examines the mixed emotions and meanings evoked by the image of the clown. Based on clowns photographed at a parade, the banality of the theme is “hacked” by addressing the irony of the painted smile, while also lamenting the clowns’ traditional role as bearers of happiness.

The installation includes clowns’ faces painted abstractly and surreally, exposing the process of painting, in a calculated display of crudeness.  The canvases are nailed and hung unconventionally to the wall with accents of sculpted fabric and cord. Painted panels of geometric shapes amplify the psychological aspects of color and perspective. Together, the installation creates a visual tension between the finished and the unfinished, and a range of conflicting emotions in the viewer.