John Beckmann Artist's Statement
“I guess I am an Otto Dix who never spent time fighting in both world wars and instead sat in his basement to watch Kuato’s head get blown apart in Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger… Or an Albrecht Durer who never lived in the Middle Ages, but did play Blizzard’s Diablo for 16 hours straight.
I want my art to be oppressively and chaotically organized. My subjects are the living dead, planes, knights, guns, swords, armor, spiders, mutant bugs, robots, children running from hungry bears, monsters, Satan, political figures, religious figures, prophets, lunatics, hobgoblins, scientific machinery, tanks, grenades, zombie rats, newfoundlands, angels, demons, car accidents, fist fights, vampires and bird people. These unique combinations are drawn from a childhood filled with addictions to magic the gathering, fast paced video games, science fiction, and my Ph.D. education in science.”