When I first viewed Fred Stonehouse’s work, I thought that it was images worthy of my worst nightmare: grotesque human heads attached to even more terrifying animal bodies. Many of these figures are crying or sweating water and blood, neither of which really make me feel too excited. Though to the contrary, after having the privilege to meet and listen to Stonehouse speak about his work, my entire view has changed.
As a child, Stonehouse grew up in Wisconsin in a Sicilian Catholic family. His upbringing in Catholic school, in which they discussed angels and the devil, made him question what other mixed creatures exist. This was further compounded after his father took him to see a record 12-foot-long sea lamprey that had washed up on the banks of the Wisconsin river. Now if you were like me, wondering what a sea lamprey is, you might image search for a better look. Don’t do it...seriously.
Anyway, the experience of seeing a monstrous creature with a frisbee-sized mouth full of teeth made an impression on Stonehouse. He said, “if that can live in the river, then anything can live in the river.” Much like me, he will never swim in dark waters again. This sparked his curiosity, looking into other creatures whose existence has been questioned, ranging from sea monsters in fairy tales, to personified objects like Humpty Dumpty in Mother Goose rhymes to mythical hybrids like harpies. In addition, he was influenced by family members in the circus, which is why his art reflects the style of sideshow banners and the intimate relationship between humans and animals. He laughed when he said that a toddler cried after seeing one of his paintings and many people tell him his work is strange, to which Stonehouse responds, “I think not really. If you could take my entire life and boil it down to 10 factors, my work would be explained.” Stonehouse's childhood, active imagination and love for primitive myths are just some of these factors.
Stonehouse begins every piece as a self-critique. Many of them explore themes of masculinity. It is this reason that he rarely uses women's faces in his art. For his pieces in the faculty show, his canvas is a collage of antique lined notebook sheets, colored paper, written pages and cloth. He chose to work on this collage style of paper because he said that, “an old piece of paper, especially something with staining or little pieces of text, is so beautiful as it gives the piece its own historical charge for me to react.”
His largest piece on display in the faculty show focuses on the “plague doctor,” which was a common figure during the Bubonic plague. The doctors at this time would wear long beak-like masks filled with rose petals in attempt to reduce the scent of death. He reexamined this image in his work, employing the plague doctor to make a statement about cures for medical diseases, but also diseases of society, one in particular being politics. Upon each of the animals that the plague doctor holds at bay by a club and a leash are the words “can’t,” “don’t,” “won’t” and “shouldn’t.” Each word is an idea that battles man’s progress to a solution. This struck a chord with me as I often feel the same when I try to finish homework, let alone change the world.
I was still rather perplexed by his work and asked him about the appearance of bodily fluids in almost every image. He explained the imagery of blood, sweat and tears as a way to represent the interior of each character. Otherwise, the characters are fairly static. Without the added imagery of pain and anguish, there is no window into the human condition. The facade of calm that each character has is shattered by the blood, sweat and tears revealing an inner-psychological state that may otherwise be concealed. This, which at one time disturbed me, has now only caused great intrigue and thought about what each person hides within themselves.
Stonehouse finished with, “If I could describe my favorite thing in the world to be doing, well there are a lot of them, but one of them would be pondering. I want to make people ponder.” He has appeared in many shows, just a few being in Madison, Chicago, New Orleans, Mexico and Paris. His work is intriguing, surprising and frighteningly honest about humanity and himself. He has definitely given myself and people across the world some powerful imagery to ponder.
