intended pejoratively).  Both aspects have equal focus in a healthy competition for attention.  Space is presented as having a great deal of 3 dimensional depth yet the paint handling counters this with a lack of atmospheric perspective.  In many pieces forms and lines also contend with each other for emphasis.  As a result of these contradictions Baker Overstreet enjoys pushing his art in several directions in such a way that avoids pigeon-holing.

These paintings have stories to tell but are magnificently open enough to allow a generosity of interpretation.  For me the totem content (or do they reference tribal masks?) is interesting for suggesting ancient historical references while also pointing toward a futuristic sensibility.  There is 

Baker Overstreet, hot mick, 2006-2007, acrylic on canvas, 47 x 40 in

Baker Overstreet, dirty piller’s beauty bumps, 2006-2007, acrylic on canvas, 77.25 x 66.25 in

an undercurrent of something a bit chilling in the imagery. They feel as though they could be tribal icons from a future on the other side of a  planetary disaster such as a nuclear war or a catastrophic natural disaster.  In this narrative a tattered history from a forgotten time clings to them but reinterpreted via a new iconography.  You get caught up in the frustrating middle but this is not a bad place.  Either end of this continuum remains just out of range; you can’t locate an explicit experience of the near forgotten past just as you can’t understand the future narrative. But this very ambiguity establishes the content for this work.