Chicken
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas (2 panels) | 64” x 84”
Peacock
2022 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas (3 panels) | 84” x 192”
Hide and Seek
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas (2 panels) | 84” x 128”
Salt (And Pepper)
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas (2 panels) | 64” x 84”
Paper Doll
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas (2 panels) | 84” x 128”
(Salt And) Pepper
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas (2 panels) | 64” x 84”
Prom Queen
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on canvas | 84” x 54”
All-ee All-ee In-Free No. 1
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 60” x 40”
All-ee All-ee In-Free No. 2
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 60” x 40”
All-ee All-ee In-Free No. 3
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 60” x 40”
All-ee All-ee In-Free No. 4
2021 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 60” x 40”
Paper, Paper Doll No. 2
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 40” x 60”
Paper, Paper Doll No. 1
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 40” x 60”
Sparky’s Spark
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 60” x 40”
Blue Avatar
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 60” x 40”
Junior Prom Queen (Lucy Had A Shiny Ball)
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 30” x 18”
Junior Prom Queen (Charlie Had A Trusting Kick)
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 30” x 18”
Junior Prom Queen (Marcie Had A Kind Sir)
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 30” x 18”
Junior Prom Queen (Patty Had A Peppermint Slumber)
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on paper | 30” x 18”
Game Over
2023 | Acrylic and varnish on wood | 20” x 16” x 2”
ARTIST STATEMENT
Hide and Seek - New Doggone It Paintings From Tahiti
BY TOM EVERHART
Hide-and-seek, a very familiar game to most children, is a way of life for many living beings in hot, humid-dripping Tahiti. Under the water’s surface, the game is alive and very active, as fish are constantly hiding behind groups of coral to survive the other larger fish. Often, they even camouflage their selves with light, as they angle their metallic bodies towards the sun, so as to confuse the hungry seeking birds above the surface of the water, creating a new way of seeing. The octopus below my overwater studio, not only transform color to camouflage, but can redesign their bodies to look like two giant eyes. Even exquisite white parrots hide amongst the reflective sun-soaked white palm fronds to foil the south pacific seahawks.
This body of work’s immediate visual content, from the deck of my Tahiti studio, is a perfectly distracting metaphor for the actual subject matter of “Hide and Seek”. The real game is the one that we are forced to play when someone’s intellectual honesty (their true self) has been hidden in order to seek out a new less authentic image for personal gain, safety, or just narcissistically to make one feel better about themselves.
Hopefully, the Hide and Seek – New Doggone It Paintings From Tahiti will offer the viewer another way of seeing the games we are sometimes made to play.
Finally, for the viewer, who is familiar with my 35 year body of work, influenced by the drawing constructions of Charles M Schulz, a natural game of hide-and-seek may unfold, courtesy of the absence of the recognizable expected Schulz imagery.