The art of Waylon Horner takes a special look at your innards. Through the gooey mush and into the cogs and gears that are slightly off kilter in the depths of the mind. His paintings fall under the broad category of abstract surrealism. Upon a closer look, one could see some figures within his work. His style, reminiscent of early computer graphics mixed with Disney cartoons, draws you in before it immediately puts you in a space of discomfort and curiosity.
His large compositions immerse viewers’ vision in a colorful explosion, taking them on a journey through the surface, with a few surprises along the way. For the most part, the paintings seem to be a jumble of squiggles, but like an episode of CSI, you’ll find a body part here and there. The chaos of lines calls forth disorder; however, his quality of line – it’s shiny finish – and minimal figuration tempts the eye to draw closer and linger.
And not to pull a Georgia-O’Keefe-esque Freudian-psychoanalysis, but Waylon’s art does have sexual undertones that come at you once you get past the flying guts. As your mind tumbles through the work, a clitoris comes through, a curved finger, a nipple, a tongue taking the mind to sensual nights, discovering bodies through exploration. Perhaps serving as a map through the quivering experience, Waylon’s paintings strike a chord of an all too familiar sexual navigation.
…Either that or the intrusive thoughts that invade the psyche. The work flows like an active mind, jumping from one idea to the next through a thin thread of connected consciousness. Stopping here to pass through a window, zigzagging through space leaving “Kapow!” marks on the theoretical ground. Slime from unknown origin oozes and slows the eyes down, navigating sporadically through in an unfamiliar terrain.
For all we know the imagery could all be sourced from bodily explosions. As Waylon says in his bio, his work is not meant to convey any message, rather it serves as a place for the viewer’s imagination to play… so maybe this review is more of a reflection on your author than anything else.
See Waylon’s tendrils surround you in his massive mural for Wide Open Walls Muralfest August 10th through the 20th, 2017.
Waylon Horner is an abstract painter based in Sacramento. As a self-taught artist with an associate’s degree in art from American River College, Waylon spent years developing his own abstract aesthetic. His main goal is to create something of visual and psychological interest. He never has any sort of direct message or meaning behind his images, always leaving it ambiguous enough to let the viewer have a little fun with their imaginations. Influences include H.R. Giger, Irving Norman, Robert Crumb, Hans Bellmer, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, John Kricfalusi and Walt Disney.
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