As populous as the major metropolitan areas of the country are, a greater percentage of Americans grew up in small towns, whether suburbs of a larger city or self-sustaining townships. This means that most of our memories from childhood, memories that make up the basic structure of our personality, live in the landscape of small town life. Patrick King still sees the country through its small towns and he lets his art speak in that voice.
His work isn’t an excising of his past, it’s a comment on it. King owns up to his heritage and stands back from it to give the audience a better look. His paintings are all commonplace scenes for the small town resident, but taken out of their element they serve as a commentary on the rampant consumerism and almost alien world of the middle class. Partly the works denounce this behavior, and partly they embrace them as creator. You can’t go home again because you never really leave.
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