" DISTORTIONS "

Altered, rewritten and distorted is the way Mitchell prefer to express his memory, making memory indistinguishable from fantasy. Primarily using magazines from the 1930s through the 1990s he layers images of male figures, vintage automobiles and flashes of color to evoke feelings surrounding gay male sexuality. An advertising image for Chevrolet from 1936 with a young man being taught to drive a car led to a piece that suggests sexual teaching. All of the work is handmade. Several pieces are layered with encaustic while all of the others use thin transparent layers of acrylic. Photo image transfer techniques have been used extensively on both the acrylic and encaustic pieces. I always work on either Masonite or plywood panels. The plywood pieces all have rough edges, which he loves.