the first thing I see in this painting is "me" traped in the bottle being held captive by the rest of the social world. The monster of course being socity all biteing each other in the ass to be the one holding someone else "me" down. But all they are really doing is just that, BITEING EACH OTHER IN THE FUCKING ASS! And a top of it all sits a machine of newspeak, or "the ideas" of socity. One pretty little machine head shiting out the worlds general predictalbe thought patterrn through the beast back into to the arm and finaly reaching me helpless in the bottle. I try to break free with my thought and my words but the shit that comes from alien head is more powerful then me. And in the end my thought, my words, myself ends up floating above the bottle looking like a fool with big fatugly tits who just once again cut his own head off.....My lifeless husk remains traped in the bottle of my own tragic creativeity and refusel to conform to the beast. But eventualy I will be dumped out of the bottle and shit back through the beast at my weakest all just to do it over again.....and again.....and untell I am DUST! I really wish you would have painted me a fucking exit sign somewhere........

Bad Brad 6/13/01

top right detail I get the impression of sexual confusion, the bottom half of the torso looks female, however the top looks phallic. I would think there is some anger toward the male side, thus the cutting off of the "head".(I would like to note at this point that I am not familiar with the artist, and have no idea if male or female) I do not know the meaning of the "fish" head other than the artist likes to draw teeth & eye balls.  The anger & frustration is further coveyed by the bottle of "evil spirits" (trapped in a bottle) & wispy "smoke" and the general "fucked up" character. This leads me to believe there is some falling back on drugs, as a way to deal with the problem. The repeated mouths consuming (or sprouting) more heads gives me the impression of the standard " mans inhumanity towards man" indicating the artist feel the world in general is uncaring and insensitive. This is only a first impression, however and does not really hold up under scrutiny.(first impressions ARE first impressions, though!) Perhaps it reflects the demons within consuming the character.The top right "gas mask" looking figure furthers the feeling that the world is a filthy, shitty place (to be cheesy, it stinks!) The "thought bubble"...well I don't know, confusion, sadness, anger?

Well thats plenty, I guess.  THE OBLIGATIONIST seems to reflect the artists frustration at his/her instinct to oblige others at the cost of his /hers happiness/self esteem / sanity.\ \

Brandonxxx ... 6/14/01 ... Sudden Death Records

the obligationalist;

i see something or someone-who is constantly consuming themselves-like a never ending cycle of obligation-to keep constantly going. certain other influences in the picture fuel certain negative aspects of the past...
trapped in the bottle...the breasts with a knife, could this possibly relate to lisa ???

-a never ending cycle of pain-
some one who must keep existing and surving to fulfill ones existance among
hauntings of the past-

Vance Savage ... 6/15/01

R.S. has finally cracked through the Thin Ice. His leprosy of the soul has turned malignant. Balancing the world and burning the candle at both ends has made him hallucinate. On canvas. In black and white. And in grey. Painfully. I wonder what strange medication he's on this time. But in any case, the monsters devouring monsters makes me think his subconscious is munching on his brain stem. Whatever potion, pussy, or cigarette that calms his nerves must be bumped up to toxic levels. For "The Obligationist" is the man behind the curtain. The Boogeyman gone ballistic. He has slipped into waters to murky to see the bottom. His work is never done. And he will forever be falling into deadlines, damnation, and Demerol.

Vince Brusio ... 6/15/01

in a nutshell, i see someone who feels he/she (? :) can only set his/her creative impulses free via the chemical (or whatever) muse in the bottle, thus being obliged to the muse for his/her creativity. sort of a rationalization for an addiction, eh?

of course, that could be my story.....;)

kris hoglund ... 6/15/01

i'm not sure if i've decided, but it looks like some chaotic sex driven war to me all the creatures coming out of each other's mouths seems quasi-sexual the gas mask and the knife has war like implications with the death figure in a bottle implying that it may be under control except for the bottle has no top on it

NICK:) ... 6/15/01

i see things differently than you of course... and i hope you wont be offended as it's just one freaks view. i never really cared for your work, i thought it was too typical or too tried, it seems that there is an almost endless army of artists pumping out the same cartoon like nightmare images, they seem to all require that monster-creatures are spilling out of other monster-creatures. usually they include weapons, horns and teeth. sort of a schoolboy drawn bosch eating bosch in black and white.but i just looked through your site, you've gotten alot of attention... i still don't know what i think. i like this new picture better, i love how you have the animated progression of the work i found that facinating, i didn't realize how much work you put into it. now i know. i like the composition and the way it makes my eye go around and around the image picking out or searching out new details and i like the gargoyle style you give to some of the animals.

i just don't like the idea of many of your works. they seem to me to be 'throw up monsters' with baseball eyeballs and denture teeth. your creatures are often leering but i'm not sure i can see the value of your art. what are you trying to say? do you do work that is cool for cools sake? do you want to produce art that's snakes vomiting snakes? i also don't like the fact that you call it the vomitus maximus 'museum' it sounds pretentious. like you are an artist who has 'arrived' and are being showcased instead of an artist who is still trying to make it. i would come to see your new works more often i think if you were more humble about your invitations.. like- come see my new work that i was a bitch slave too- or something...

Name withheld ... 6/15/01

The man/beast thing appears as though it is being devoured by the other
creatures, with each creature being devoured by the creature behind it. All
eyes seem to be centered on the bottle, or it's contents. The contents
inside the bottle, the trapped man, may be symbolic of a drinking problem.
The bottle is giving off fumes that materialize into a fish-faced man, who's
cutting his own head off. I supposed this symbolize the self-destructive
quality of the bottle, or drinking problem. The man/beast appears to have
great interest and joy in the bottle. There is a face with black eyes
sprouting from the tail, which is also being devoured. The black eyed face
does nothing, it just watches from a distance thinking over what it sees. I
don't know why, but one "evil" eye is staring at me, the viewer, with a
devilish look, as if telling me to mind my own business and go the hell away.

SeraphimCloud ... 6/15/01

My thoughts on "THE OBLIGATIONIST" are that this man inside the bottle of liquor is trapped inside...until he is finally let out. Once opened, his worst fears and nightmares are released. His mind goes through different "stages" of his fear. Each "stage" brings out another creature, through the mouth of the last.

Frederick Margolin ... 6/15/01

I see the person in the bottle being all of us at times. Seperate from the rest of the world, or the moster in this case, but over time we let a little bit of ourselves out and try to become more like everyone else....or maybe I'm just seeing stuff wrong.

kooie ... 6/15/01

A collapsing soul fascinated with it's own vices and kinetic decay, temporarily reinforced by the scores of decadent offspring that aid in the perpetuation of a joyfully savage yet vicious cycle. It seems that the two towering enigmas that rule the two top corners of the painting's ring (the self-decapitating fish fatale and the gas masked by-product of this routine), can't tolerate any kind of direct confrontation with reality or it's sometimes destructive environments , seductions, and consequences.

Michael S. Baker ... 6/15/01

Booze...
to fill a void.
Self inflicted sufference,
and impotence as a direct consequence...
Plus the feeling of something/somebody evolved
and unknown constantly breathing on our necks.

Giupe Marchesi ... 6/15/01

What I see, in this painting when I was looking at it I noticed the heads eating at eachother, the fish in common respects a sign of religion, a bottle that can be related to human addiction and a knife that can go to violence. I also noticed that everything in this painting seemed to be focusing in twords the bottle, whether it just be bent that way or looking that way. I started to think that the painting kinda related to society and the daily remedial grind of life, in a kinda "rat race" to get to the prize. That long earned relazation at the end of the day kicking back and drinking or what have you, and watching T.V. The violence part is just another thing that happens in the every day life. It is not offten you can go one whole day without seeing something to do with hate of whatever. Basicly that is human nature and society.

Ely Lakai Lakou ... 6/15/01

I see the queen bee letting the genie out of the bottle, and it seems to me that the genie is'nt offering exactly what she wanted so....the queen has let her children loose upon the world to exact some unkown revenge upon the world. It is quite "busy" but, i think it needs to be. Also, at first glance it almost looks like a lunar landscape. Keep up the good work.

(P.S. JUNE 9TH WAS MY 30TH BIRTHDAY.)

CURTIS BECKERDITE ... 6/15/01

i see, a person with thousands of responsibilities, or tasks, or issues, that have morphed into lives of their own, and now, they are taking over the live of the person, who feels trapped by them. the words i think of, are "overwhelmed" "trapped" and also, i think of the person being able to over come this monster, because the sky and stars are still visable, which leads me to believe there is a hope still left for the person, but rite now, they are in the monsters grips. i really find this painting to represent how i feel, that my own issues have morphed into a giant monster.. this is cool cause, im currently making a mixed-media picture, of a gurl being overcome or ran over, simular to if u were laying on the beach and a wave crash on you, but of instead of the water, its bits and pieces of objects that are taking over my life rite now... sooooo, this painting reallllllly speaks to me, and i think its amazing, and i wish u a million stars to look to, because you are powerful in art.

karliashi ... 6/15/01

The beast within sends you a drink

Mark Contatore ... 6/15/01

i deliberated for about 20 minutes and this is what i came up with. the central figure represents a male obsessed with drinking. although there isn't clear evidence of this, the left hand seems to be a male hand, either that or
that of an old man/woman. i chose the first.

he seems to be very happy and excited over the beer bottle he is holding, as are the other faces all over his body. i see a woman trapped inside the bottle, which may represent his possession of a woman and the beer, which makes him happy.

but coming out of the beer bottle is another figure, whom i assume to be female because of the large breasts. but this is a threatening figure, as it is holding a knife, which he is not seeing at all (because he is too obsessed over the beer bottle and the beer and woman inside) and may strike him at any second. i take this to be the dual role of beer and the woman for the man--they can cause him happiness, and at the same time they can lead to his ruin.

the fish head of the figure coming out of the bottle may be more evidence that the figure represents a woman. that may be stretching it a bit though.

i took the various creatures/faces on the central figure's body to be parasites spawning from his own wretched habit of drinking. it is clear that the little creatures are also excited about the beer bottle (as mentioned before), and that they are literally eating his body up, as shown on his arm and "tail" (i really dont know what else to call it). more evidence of his love of drinking leading to his ruin.

the horns on the back of the central figure may represent the domination and power of the male.

it looks as if the whole scene takes place in outer space, with the stars and weird space creatures in the background. this may represent the strange world the main figure is experiencing as he drinks up that beer.

the overall grayness of the painting may represent the bleak outlook of the whole thing. this man is killing himself and indulging in things that will eventually lead to the end of him.

two things i could not come up with interpretations for were the severed head of the female coming out the bottle and the "tail". why is the head cut off? apparently she has just cut off her own head. but why? and what is the meaning of the tail and the alien creature speaking from it? i dont know. also i failed to make a connection between the picture and the title, "the obligationist".

Jinyoung Shin ... 6/15/01

the self destructive demons of excess - they are courage in the form of liquor.
one must "be safe" when consuming or being consumed.

its almost a haiku

Dean Sitton ... 6/15/01

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