Send us Fan Mail Visual artist Overstreet Ducasse is not like other artists. His paintings are of perfectly crafted representational characters that are symbols loaded with so much symbolism and metaphor, they make Dali seem shallow. Chapter 1 - School of Wu-Tang Overstreet's work is inspired by music. A graduate of the "School of Wu-Tang", his influences range from the 5th Dimension to Steely Dan, REM to Wu-Tang. His origins, finding his voice as he comes of age in Miami, sharpening his craft by exploring characters and moving into storytelling as he travels the US. Chapter 2 - Age of Aquarius Whereas most artists sketch, he writes. Finding connections between subject matter, bringing those connections into the work, layering language, wordplay, concepts, and parallels across time and space to weave narratives and make stitches in time. What started as friends geeking out over Wu-Tang became Overstreet's process for exploring and digging deeper into the characters and concepts he found in the narrative imaginations and cast of the Wu-Tang Clan, finding religions, languages and cultures living deep in the Wu-Tang lore. While traveling around the country as a boilermaker at nuclear power plants, Overstreet was inspired by the song The Age of Aquarius by the 5th Dimension and the ideas and symbols he saw in that cosmic work. Chapter 3 - Connecting Cultural Codes Overstreet's work sometimes needs key or decoder ring that only Overstreet himself can really provide. Finding conceptual pathways from McCarthyism to Reagan to the Jan 6 rioters through the REM song Exhuming McCarthy (which revised to X-zooming McCarthy, listen to the episode for the full story) and from there going down hundreds if not thousands of cultural rabbit holes. The "red scare" references redlining, communism, Russia, China, and MAGA. The "black list" references racism, segregation, and Colin Kaepernick. The humanized targets and hands and bodies and even the sneakers featured in his work each have layers of meaning nested in the paint. These symbols are born in the work, research from one piece leaks into the next, because all of these cultural narratives are connected. We discuss the pure irrational joy of being surprised by your own creation. Exploring pattern-breaking, disruptive concepts, the meaning of materials and mediums, and the giant fabric hypercube from the MoCA show. Chapter 4 - Pretzel Logic The Deepressionists and rebirth pangs. Jacksonville's cultural renaissance 2 decades and still waiting. The Steely Dan and MF Doom songs are making their way into his current work. He has work on the wall, but he's still letting the ideas gestate and ferment. The art of knowing when the art is done. When he can't work the message into one piece, it goes into a backlog to hopefully emerge in a future series or exploration. Chapter 5 - Process: Throw a Dart Overstreet doesn't struggle with inspiration or the need for cultural reset. He finds his solace in his home, his studio, and in his work. He immerses himself in the stories he has to tell until they come forward enough to be ready to paint. If he is at a loss, he has an infinite wealth of explorations in his notebooks and his headphones. Upcoming show: January at Unicat References: https://overstreetducasse.com/ https://canvasrebel.com/meet-overstreet-ducasse/ https://starehouse.com/2012/11/23/american-arcanum/ Season 2 of Floridation discusses art and culture in Northeast Florida with a different artist or culture maker each episode. Young Buck Coffee locally roasts coffee fresh every week and delivers it to your door. Order today at youngbuckcoffee.com For more check out The Floridation Papers at Floridation.substack.com. Thanks for putting a little a Florida in you. Y'all come back now, hear?
