Baby Mueller

I remember my mom would take me and my sisters to McDonald’s for cheese burgers, we would share fries and a Coke. Back then, my idea of being rich was that we could eat McDonalds together whenever we wanted. My paintings are a reflection of that childhood idea of success mixed with the loneliness and introspection I feel as a working adult.

I liken my work to an inversion of the 16th and 17th century Vanitas genre. Vanitas paintings were a way for the merchant class to boast about their wealth and philosophize their own mortality, in contrast my work speaks to how the modern working class navigates their life around capitalism. I present the idea that the working class was sold a new culture starting 70 years ago by fast food corporations and I ask questions about what that could mean. Is a Baja Blast an exclusive soda served at Taco Bell, or is it something belonging to the zeitgeist? Is Grimace more than a mascot for Milkshakes? Will I ever be economically successful and time rich enough that I can opt out of a socially isolating connivence and eat better than “good enough”?

I want to allude to what isn’t in view and imply that the viewer is part of the scene. The goal is to find unity and empathy in shared experiences of the working class by having an open invitation to participate in the narrative. I try to frame my paintings as if they where photographs by paying close attention to how I create geometric relationships through placement in the composition. I will also collage photos into the painting to push this idea further. I think pictures are the most precious reminder that something has passed into memory and can not be recovered. I also believe there is a deep well of emotional and cultural connections to photos that I can ask the viewer to pull from when viewing my work. Because the collaged photos are not nearly as archival as the oil paintings they are pasted into, there is a very real possibility that they will fade away while the rest of the painting lasts centuries longer.

To me painting is an exercise in vulnerability, connection, and kindness to myself and for the people I surround myself with. It is a reminder to hope for the better and to cherish what you have before it is lost.