Back in early 2005, when I made the painting, the reaction of Dimebag’s fans was actually not on my mind. I was interested in this tragedy as a historical event that occurred in our media saturated world, but was without a defining image of the event. Normally the pervasive 24-hour news and infotainment industry is able to define news worthy events with an image or video. In this case the event was only captured in the accounts of witnesses who saw the horrific event live at the Alrosa Villa. This afforded me an opportunity to make a painting that might be the only visual depiction of the tragedy, and yes I exploited this opportunity.

In my defense I thought it to be an extremely significant event, and one that needed to be remembered. I thought my painting might help remember the tragedy. The painting is certainly in poor taste, but I think that when one is describing a mass murder, etiquette is really not an issue.

Poor taste is pretty much the baseline criteria for my work, so fundamental to my project that I really do not consider it when I make a painting. I have no interest in being in good taste. My work is always subjective, inaccurate and incorrect, and I stand behind this position. I am however surprised that Metal fans would be so sensitive to taste, as it seems that their genre of music operates in a context without taste. For fucks sake, Dimebag played a guitar with a rebel flag painted on it! For any non Americans who might read this, the rebel flag is a symbol of the civil war era American south. While it is not solely a symbol of a pro-slavery political position, it cannot be divorced from this meaning, much like the swastika is forever linked to the holocaust. While I would not pretend to know Dimebag’s views on anything, and certainly not race, I do think this guitar shows he was not concerned with issues of etiquette or sensitivity to people’s feelings. I would hope I would be allowed a similar social leeway as a fellow artist. Neither paintings nor flags kill people – crazy fucks like Nathan Gale do.

More generally, I certainly respect anyone’s right to get their panties in bunch about something they find offensive. But I can’t help but be amused by the irony of this particular situation. The iconography of metal heavily features imagery of violence. The culture police are constantly complaining about its offensive and obscene song lyrics. Many, many metal albums depict images of war, rape, murder etc etc. And when the PMRC (et al.) complain I would be the first to tell them to shove it up their ass. I didn’t mean this painting to be offensive, but I am not in the least bit sorry if it is. That is not to say that I don’t empathize with the family and friends of Dimebag and all the victims, their loss must have been horrible beyond anything I can comprehend. But Art’s job is not to be polite.

I guess this little dust up between me and a few vocal metal fans gets at larger issues in my work and I am glad to get the chance to address them. For the most part I am of the opinion that most contemporary painting has little relevance in our larger culture, except for that some paintings can be extremely valuable luxury goods. But since I really love making paintings, and it’s all I’ve ever been much good at or interested in, I try to think of ways to make paintings that are relevant memes in our current context. I admit that I fail at this often, however all of the hubbub around this painting confirms it as a success in terms of my criteria (despite its extremely low monetary value judging by auction estimates!) I honestly didn’t make this painting with the intention of being transgressive (and I have made things with that goal in mind and would gladly admit it). That being said the fact that this painting is so extremely controversial in some circles is a testament to the power a painting can have and i guess this is extremely empowering for artists.

well first off i dont know how you can call your self an artist painting stuff like that…being a dime bag fan and him being my idol i find that piece of “art” i find it very offensive…even if you are trying to show your respects to him it is still wrong..did you even stop to think what dime bags fans would feel seeing something like that..his death hurt so many people and changed the music era for ever…he is a amazing respectable person and that piece of “art” to me is disrespectful…in the future if i where you when i wanted to paint or draw a respectable musican or celeb dont show the way they died…do something peaceful something people would love to have on their wall or computer. You Should be ashamed of yourself and that piece of “art”. and i am not the only one who would feel this way about it. Amanda Mollica

Thanks, Amanda. I am really glad that you enjoyed my painting, and enthusiastic responses such as yours confirm my feeling that it is one of my best. I think of it as a history painting that attempts to depict one of the more bizarrely tragic moments of the past decade. Dimebag’s death was certainly a great loss to the music world and a truly poignant cultural event – a real rock hero slain on stage by a seemingly psychotic fan. A horrifying symptom of the kind of cultural malaise that permeated  Bush II era America. In a way this painting is my answer to Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa. One of the things that interested me about making a painting about this event was that as there was almost no visual documentation of the event, just some very unclear security camera footage from the Alrosa Villa. Thus, there was little to get in the way of my imagination of what this might have actually looked like and I was able to base my painting on the oral reports from witnesses of the four murders as well as Nathan Gale’s eventual death. As you probably know, these gruesome accounts were all over the news and the internet in the following days and months.

Btw Amanda, I tried to look you up on facebook to friend you, but your address is attached to the profile of an Amanda More – cookie monster 69, huh? I’m not sure if I want to even consider what this implies – a bit much for my delicate sensibilities!