I never promised you a Rose Garden | woodcut

New 5-layered woodcut, created March–April 2016:

Alex Diamond: I never promised you a Rose Garden (2016)
Multi-layered woodcut, acrylic paint, ca. 80 x 60 x 11 cm (31,5” x 23,5” x 4,5”)

Background

When it comes to superheroes, at some point I will always come back to The Incredible Hulk, whom I‘ve used as a reference in my woodcuts for a few times already over the past years. For me personally there are so many angles to the big green fella that I am sure you will see him appear again in my future woodworks.

But as with most of the figurative elements in my work, I am using the Hulk mostly for his symbolic values: he is torn, powerful, unpredictable, unstable, and in constant soul-searching for the reasons for his being - all strong references to life itself and the daily struggles we often deal with.

However, in this work ... the Hulk is looking down into the golden light that shines from the bluff he is sitting on, and he is ... smiling. Ever so slightly, just a smirk that you only see when standing close to the artwork - but a happy smile it is. It appears that he has made his peace.

For some background trivia: There are two very popular „quotes“ in this woodcut: the Hulk‘s posture resembles Auguste Rodin‘s „The Thinker“, and the title derives from the famous country song „(I never promised you a) Rose Garden“.

The reference to the sculpture is mainly about visual familiarity, putting the Hulk into a less violent and non-agressive environment. All despite the fact that „The Thinker“ originally sits at Rodin‘s„Gates of Hell“ and is definitely not smiling. But he is however also more or less just an observer.

The title from the Joe South country song „(I never promised you a) Rose Garden“ completes my composition and is to be taken pretty literally. Because like most good music, stories and paintings are about the one thing only, this woodcut is also just another love song.

Everything else regarding the stories within this work I am sure you will figure out easily enough ...

Trans.Form. | woodcut, January 2014

First woodcut of the year 2014 is a return to the HULK-theme I have been referring to in two of my artworks from late 2013, exhibited at Feinkunst Krüger in Hamburg Nov-Dec. For more information on the other 2 works please check these links:

Hulk 1 | Hulk 2

Availabilty of woodcuts: visit heliumcowboy

'RAGE' | WOODCUT, OCT 2013

Rage. (or: Don't wake Schacke)woodcut, acrylic paint, 30 x 40 x 3 cm (2013) — Rage. (or: Don't wake Schacke)
woodcut, acrylic paint, 30 x 40 x 3 cm (2013)

*UPDATE: This work was recently re-named to ,Don‘t wake Schacke‘, just my tribute to one of the finest guys in the universe.

After finishing the first woodcut involving The Incredible Hulk (read more), which was supposed to be a one-off created for the annual exhibition ,Don‘t Wake Daddy‘, the most prestigious international Low Brow-Gallery show in Germany at Feinkunst Krüger (Dec 2013), I got restless & hooked on the topic ... and went straight back to the studio to come up with this one. While the first work (,Don‘t get me started‘) is rather ,soft spoken‘ despite the anger represented in The Hulk, this one is rather wild and furious in every aspect of the painting.

The title of the work, as in most of my recent woodcuts, is written within one of the many background layers I start out with when prepping the foundation for this kind of paintings and, as usual, hard or impossible to read once the work is finalized. Here, I have been working with the contradiction and built-in frustration found in the stronghold that we believe we need to build around us in order to protect our true feelings (and furthermore to keep control over the incontrollable), which eventually leads to rage: ,How do you say FUCK OFF and I LOVE YOU in one painting?‘

The Hulk, however, has no ability to hold back his anger, and to (often falsely) control the feelings that ignite rage. Thus said, in this work he is most likely one of the rare possible artistic depictions of emotions as irritating as the title suggests.

Some more detail images from the work below, because unfortunately woodcuts are difficult to be shown properly in digital (or, for that matter, printed) form. At the end of the day, they are pretty haptic and can only be properly apprehended (and probably even appreciated) when confronted live and personal.

'Don't get me started' | woodcut, Oct 2013

Don‘t get me started. Wood carving, acrylic paint, wood, 40 x 30 x 3 cm (2013) © Alex Diamond — Don‘t get me started.
Wood carving, acrylic paint, wood, 40 x 30 x 3 cm (2013)
© Alex Diamond

This is the latest woodcut coming out of the studio, and most likely a pretty rare one regarding the depiction of a well known Superhero. A Superhero that‘s not really a hero at all times, and most definitely not from his own motivation, and the fact that anger triggers his transformation from nice guy to a huge and powerful menace made the Incredible Hulk become my all time favorite in the Marvel Universe. And yes, I do believe that he is the strongest of all Superhero‘s, and not Thor, as often claimed.

In this work, The Hulk stands for the rage and anger inside of us (me), that comes out when certain triggers are pulled. The interesting question will always be: to what result? What are the choices made in these situations? How much do we loose control? And can we create something positive from anger at all?

I am pretty sure this is something many of us can relate to. But it definitely is a very personal and „autobiographic“ work.

Note: The inspiration for the depiction of Hulk came from Gabriel Hardman, a very famous and amazing comic artist who‘s been drawing this character for many years. His images simply stood out when I was researching the Hulk for reference material.