hugh’s artist’s statement: “remember who you are”

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[UPDATE: Down­load the high-res pos­ter ver­sion here.]

This image to the left you should be seeing a lot of from now on, scat­te­red around the gaping­void empire. It’s now our offi­cial logo.

OK, so why “Remem­ber Who You Are”?

Because it ties up everything I’ve been wor­king on these last few years. First with the car­toons, the prints and the “Cube Gre­nade” pri­vate com­mis­sions.

Like I said earlier:

I’m inte­res­ted in how art affects “The Real World”- the work­place, the world of work, the world of busi­ness. That’s what the Cube Gre­nade idea is all about.

My adver­ti­sing buddy, Vinny Warren, grew up in a Roman Catho­lic hou­sehold in Ire­land. He was telling me that his parents would always have a few reli­gious icons han­ging on the wall somewhere. Pic­tu­res of Saints, Mary & Baby Jesus, that kind of thing.

Why? Says Vinny, “To remind us who we were.”

My work has never been about get­ting the appro­val of the New York art gallery mafia. My work has always been about “What Really Mat­ters” to peo­ple, espe­cially to my peers.

Art that reminds you who you are. Exactly. What applies in Catho­lic hou­seholds also applies in pla­ces of busi­ness. Sha­red Mea­ning. Sha­red Pur­pose. Exactly. Social Objects. Exactly.

Secondly, I think there’s an insa­tia­ble hun­ger for it. Not to lose our­sel­ves in the hope­less muddle we call Life, but ins­tead, doing something that mat­ters, making a dif­fe­rence, crea­ting good in the world, crea­ting value. Remem­be­ring what’s really impor­tant, remem­be­ring who we are.

This is not just about Art and car­toons, this is about EVERYTHING we do.

I’ve been saying this to my clients for years– to have a suc­cess­ful brand, per­so­nal or other­wise, it can’t just be about you, or even your cus­to­mers, it has to be about something HIGHER than all of us. A “Purpose-Idea” .

gaping­void is no excep­tion; neither is your work.

“Remem­ber who you are.” I’ll try to live up to it; I hope TO GOD that you will, too. Amen.

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