HUNTOPIA - Catalog - Page 25
T H O R N TO N
HUNTOPIA includes your paintings from our collection as far back as 1983. We also have the
1989 painting of Jesus Christ. During your visit, we were in the Museum vault and you mentioned that
you painted this picture around the time of the origin of your bunny paintings.
SLO NE M
Yes, it’s at the feet of Jesus Christ, I believe. Yes, that’s the origin of the bunny, which has really taken off in
my work in the last few years.
T H O R N TO N
Your use of repetition has been compared to Andy Warhol’s, in particular your bunnies, but yours suggests
more of a spiritual, meditative mantra than the polished multiples of Warhol’s Factory. Can you tell me
about the similarities and differences between your work and Warhol’s?
SLO NE M
Well, mine is derived from nature, Warhol’s is from advertising. I discovered the power of repetition from
my courses in India, an ashram I went to, and how blades of grass and snowflakes are completely unique
and yet they add up to something divine. Their divinity is in their unique individual form; like leaves create
a tree and molecules that lead to a blue sky. So the similarities are that there’s a color synchronicity and
repetition of form. Warhol derived his from products, I’m just deriving mine from nature.
T H O R N TO N
So there is a Pop influence, but do you refer to your own work as neo-expressionist, or do you prefer to just
avoid labels?
SLO NE M
I prefer non-category, but I think you know I call it Exotica [laughter].
T H O R N TO N
[laughter] Yes, and for people who are not familiar with your use of the term Exotica, can you talk about it
for a moment?
SLO NE M
Well, I mean literally anything unfamiliar. So it could be a computer; a ballpoint pen to a native in
New Guinea …. I lived in Hawaii as a child, had extended stays in Nicaragua, went to Japan, and I saw the
exotic as being a natural phenomenon, a spiritual buzz. It had a spiritual and lush tropical thing in my
head …unknown, unfamiliar … like Japanese culture, Hawaiian lure, that sort of thing. But more than just
the unknown, it was a richer array of color and form than we were used to. I was born in Maine and
there was some interesting stuff in the forest … but infinitely more in the tropics: bird forms, toucans, the
Mamo bird …. I was influenced by the Kings’ cloaks of Hawaii that took three hundred years to make; and
the Mayan headdresses for which they plucked two feathers from quetzals and released them. They had
a reverence for nature. I think my work really is about reverence and spirituality, where Warhol’s is almost
poking fun, you know, turning S&H Green Stamps into a venerable form [laughter].
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