max@fearisthenewbeauty

My name is Max Grundy and I have been a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer for the majority of my life and an art teacher for several years. My work is shown throughout the United States.

Conceptually, my work is based in America's love affair with fear
and its consequential phobias. The most effective images to motivate
people and get a reaction are images of fear. Fear motivates people to
do something or stop doing something. Media uses fear tactics on a
daily basis to tell us a variety of fallacies; that germs threaten the
lives of our children, or perhaps that our social status depends on the
degree of whiteness of our teeth. The news, as well as advertising, seems to exploit human beings' desire for shock value. In short, FEAR IS THE
NEW BEAUTY.

Formally, I am interested in propaganda style imagery and vintage
poster design. Specifically, nuclear era Russian propaganda art (around World War II). I admire its use of unusual perspective, limited color palette, dramatic text and design to create maximum effect. I believe this style has the ability to reach out and grab a viewer because of its economical graphic quality. I am interested in portraying the darker side of the fifties. Americans look back on that decade as though it was all poodle skirts and milk shakes and that is just not the case. It was a post war era steeped in fear through media about war and pending nuclear apocalypse. That is what the 50’s is to me. For me the 50’s was the end of American innocence.

I think that WW2 was extremely influential in this culture we immerse ourselves in. Lest we forget why people began building hot rods in the first place... Boys were coming back from a war that forced them in to high speed, technology, and drama. So of course the first thing the kids do when they get home is to start applying there skills to their cars. Stripping them down and souping them up. Granted hot rods existed before this, but I believe it was the war that fastened hot rods into mainstream American culture.

My purpose in creating images of fear and phobias is an attempt to
defuse the power of fears that are used against the public by the
media.