“Look, we either all come from monkeys or we’re supposed to be like this, and I don’t like it either way”
-Reverend Chris Gross

What is any show about?

That’s always a good question for an artist. It’s like asking, “What are you all about?” since the stuff came out of your head you have to try and figure it out, but really, you’d rather just be painting. These days I just let those pictures make their way to the canvas and worry about it later, or not. I suppose if one wanted to, some kind of psychoanalysis could be done by studying the art, but that takes soooo long, and does anybody really care?

Pee Wee’s answer was probably best: "There's a lotta things about me you don't know anything about. Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand.”

I would add, “There’s a lotta things about ourselves we’ll never understand.”

This past year has proved to be strange and challenging for me. It’s been enough to make one question a lot of assumptions.
Remember those dreams you had when you were back in high school, where for some reason you forgot to put on your pants that morning and the big stupid guy in shop class still wants to kick your ass? It’s kinda like that. So this frame of mind has naturally translated into my recent work.

It almost seems like Monkeys are running everything these days. Well, actually they are! So that’s kind of a loose theme with me now, this idea that we are not really so far from our animal nature and are in fact just a cluster of great apes lumbering through life acting out ancient programs that don’t work too well in this new world. That perspective sort of explains things (somewhat) for me, and (at least) makes more sense than my neighbor’s Jehovah's Witness ramblings.

So I say “Why fight it? Let your inner Monkey Shine!”

-Mark Bryan