Artist's Notes on Coma State (The Long Unpleasant Dream):

Riding off of my contact high from Unbridled! I set about to create a photomontage autobiography of my Blue Room story, resulting in a pentaptych titled, Coma State (The Long Unpleasant Dream)."


Because these pieces morph quickly from extreme self-deprecation into lunacy and then into a monument to vanity, I output them as 5"x5" squares and debuted them in a subtle corner on the second floor in a group exhibition I curated, titled *precious things…*

What I find most exciting about the work is that the healing from an internal creative ugliness does not result in beauty, but in a voluminous and flagrant state of mental illness.

It has been suggested to me that the Coma State series would need to be enlarged to the scale of a Marilyn Minter or a David LaChapelle to be properly appreciated and digested… perhaps someday, this suggestion might be realized.

Theme Explored: a "come full circle" photo-documentary about failing and falling into a creative paralysis, and the process of coming out of that stagnation and back into a state of renewed empowerment.

The art statement that pertains to this series is literally superimposed on the surface of the work. To see the complete series, please e-mail me at cs@christopherstout.com.

Coma State Red, (The Long Unpleasant Dream), 2004. Various dimensions. Photomontage of self-portrait photography and transparency film. (Image 3 of 5)