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Sagittarius–not only in New Age types, but in everyone else, too. I nominate you to be the earthy whistleblower who makes sure that all the deep truths stay fun and funny. – Free Will astrology – Rob Brezsny, The Village Voice, 2/26/2004

On February 26th, while working on the paintings that are my current body of work, I happened to read my horoscope. The phrase ‘Stinky Zen’ tied together perfectly the unnamed themes and ideas that I had been developing in my paintings and something about the way it sounded amused me. I find a perverse entertainment in the outward signs of individuals who are grave, earnest, humorless, apathetic, arrogant, ignorant, self-important, gluttonous, and all the other wonderful traits that we use to hide our fears and to protect ourselves. I recognize these traits because I, like every other person, experience these weaknesses or lacks of faith, and I, like most other people, work hard to contain them. Now I had a name for it that I could laugh at as well. These caricatures of identity become playtime for caricatures of painting. The personality of the caricature becomes the playing field for the formal elements of color, process, and technique. The objective is to capture a vibration or buzz that defines the hypnotized quality of the narrative. It is this push and pull between high finish and low, often self-deprecating humor, this caricature of form, process, and content, that I see as a type of meta-painting in response to both painting and to the world we live in.

The paintings have become my way of accepting, creating and finding joy in the act of making. I know a painting is complete when it makes me look and smile at the same time. I know a painting is finished when I recognize myself in it. – Chuck Agro, 2004.

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IMAGE DESCRIPTION : 1. – The happy man, 2004, 24×24 in, enamel on panel. 2. – Hypnotized, 2004, 16 x 12 in enamel on panel. 3. – The inappropriate joke, 2004, 24 x 24 in enamel on panel. 4. – Nervous Norvis, 2004, 12 x 12 in, enamel on panel. 5. – Man with a strong opinion, 2004, 60 x 60 in, enamel on panel. 6. – The Sugar eater, 2004, 12×12 in, enamel on panel.