Personal Information

Full Name

Kirk Brooks

Artist Bio

I can not avoid being an artist.
I've tried - it didn't work too well. My parents were artists so I grew up with real art hanging on the walls, chaos, intensity instead of intimacy and a drive to look into things to see what was there. This is not a trait that always makes one popular.
I moved to New Mexico as a kid and to the Bay Area 30 years later. "I was so much older then..." I think people make "big" moves, after about 22 or so, for either love or money. I've always made them for love.
I love San Francisco. Since being here I've hit some of the hardest lows and most meaningful highs of my life. My art is exploding out of me and it feels good.

Artist Statement

I began "playing" with the Barbie dolls a couple of years ago. Imagine, if you will, a fifty year old man seriously evaluating the various flavors of Barbies in the Redwood City Target. Surprisingly no one summoned the store security. arriving home I immediately took all her clothes off (this is sounding more and more troubling) and was soon taping a bent metal rod to the small of her back - so that she would stand up correctly, don't you see. ( You know, as I write this is begins to sound more and more like a rejected CSI script.)

Anyway. From this session emerged an image of Barbie I photoshoped into an eerily realistic looking image by taking out the plastic seams and joints, enhancing her skin tone and little else. I had this image printed on a large piece of banner material. The banner material made it pliable and sturdy. During this time I was taking a lighting course at CCSF. For a group assignment I took my group to the Tenderloin on successive Friday and Saturday nights. Equipped with the banner Barbie, a mobile flash unit and my Canon 1D Mk2 we prowled Polk Gulch approaching various people with the Barbie Banner and asking them to give me their response to it. This is how "Rolemodel Barbie" came to be - on Polk Street about midnight and close to Divas.

The relationship series was shot in a studio. I lit the dolls as thought I was doing a full blown fashion shoot. At home I took the images and "cleaned" them up much as I would a fashion shoot. That means for the girl I fixed the wrinkles, smoothed out the skin tones, added a little blush and so forth. For the guy - well let's face it, who cares about the guy? I mean, guys will fit themselves into the scene if the girl looks good.

"Real Barbie" is the final prong in my Barbie trident. Everyone knows Barbie's proportions are unattainable by mortals. But what's that really look like? And if you actually start to look at that what do you see? Is Barbie stepping out of a real woman or is the real woman subsuming Barbie? I suppose only her plastic surgeon will know for sure.

History

Member for

14 years 8 months