9. There seems to be a fine line in your paintings between sending up some of these celebrities and idolizing them; for instance, Samuel L. Jackson and Jack Nicholson. What strikes you about these icons?

I painted them because everyone likes them, and I could manipulate their iconography to make statements that wouldn’t be interesting otherwise. If a fat kid is smoking weed wile watching porn, it’s kind of boring. But if Samuel Jackson’s smoking weed while watching pornography, then people laugh their asses off and totally relate.

See more of Dave MacDowell’s work at www.macdowellstudio.com.

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