Catholic Warhol vs. Celebrity Warhol

This series came about in what I thought was successful other series of paintings, the Contemplative Paintings of March 2018.

Lots of painters don't grow up steeped in Warhol myth and lore the way that I did, so they may not feel quite so compelled to address the matter directly, especially not as directly as I've done here.

Suffice it to say, I'd love for the Catholic side to put the Celebrity side to bed forever. I doubt that will happen. I still think Catholic Warhol is a shorter, quicker route to better understanding the work, and even our present condition than is the celebrity side.

Warhol's iconography, vision - not even to mention church membership and even attendance - were always the secret in the work, despite the man's public persona. That persona played in a protestant (i.e.; agnostic) public, and one that has always been blind to European, Papist, and to the spirituality secreted away in what are old world foibles. As I write this, the museum is launching another of its Ad-Man shows, as if that particular young Warhol has at last shaken off the altar-boy habits of his otherwise embarrassing upbringing. They've done this show before. But they haven't done a show of Catholic Warhol.

The Celebrity is there, like the Ad-Man. It's Warhol's fault, and probably it couldn't have been any other way. But it's the Catholic with the respect, admiration, and distance from its beloved that inspires. I'm happy that the Elvis source photo is from his (Elvis's) induction into the military. It leaves a lot of questions open, about youth, about war, about modesty, and celebrity.

I'm not necessarily answering them, but I do like the idea of leaving a bookmark, here, so I can return to the theme. I was never much of an Elvis fan. Warhol fan? Probably that's fair to say, but it's on the Catholic side of the question that I'd probably be more interested in investigating, or to continue investigating, anyway.

- April 2018