The Hips or Lips Series

In his "Hips or Lips" series, Jeff Winslow has found a deeply personal and unique voice amidst an art scene where the use of cartoons has become both more prevalent and uniform.

This may be due in part to the oddity of an artist who works in the vernacular of cartoons but is not a fan of comics or animation.

Aside from reading Dr. Seuss books as a child, the artist cites 20th century expressionism (Bacon, Rouault, Beckman, etc.), as his main influence. In the surrealist tradition these paintings are based on ink drawings he does in one take without corrections or revisions. The images unfold without conscious direction or forethought.

He then painstakingly builds up layers of velaturas and glazes to create an unusually rich and expressive palette.

The contrast between the free flow of the subconscious and the carefully labored surfaces heightens the expression of the humor, anxiety and psychological violence of contemporary life. Works disturbingly set adrift without anchor to any specific pop culture references.