Portrait of the Artist:
Genius or Madman?

RS Connett was born in San Francisco. Early in his career he was prolific in his line-art renderings, but it was not until he mastered the use of the airbrush, water color and acrylics that he found the means of finally releasing the tormenting demons from the depths of his psyche.

His first showing in 1984 was decried as "sadistic" and was ordered closed. Pressed to label Connett's work, a local critic described his art as "psycho-representational." Others, mortified at the images before them, were reduced to inanely babbling "sick, just sick..." as they walked away, heads bowed and shaking. Conjured directly from the subconscious, the landscape of images Connett produces are at once brilliantly colorful and sublimely morbid, both beautiful and darkly grotesque. While definitely the visions of the artist, Connett's works offer stark commentary on the animal living within us all.

Written by Connett:

Society's ills (both literally and figuratively) are all in some way linked to overpopulation. "Nature," which I deem to include all physical things, is rebelling in order to survive man's assault. Humankind, being only a small aspect of the entire organism, is expendable. Our demise is a good and necessary thing and just as we would rid our bodies of an infestation of lice, nature will unburden itself of us, using any means required.

In only a few generations, we have developed new antisocial behaviors while the long-standing ones escalate. These behaviors are harmful to us, yet nurturing to our planet. Unfortunately for those of us living today, our demise seems to be the natural order of things.

Some of the more benign manifestation of this progress made by nature are behaviors that reduce or eliminate reproduction of our species. Sexual aberration, impotence, mass neuroses and substance abuse are but a few examples.

More malignant forms are racism, madness, suicide, violent crime, mass murders, serial murders, child abuse, rape, incest and of course, war. Nature brings forth natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, drought, famine and pestilence. Some man made disasters are depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain, oil spills, global warming and the occasional nuclear reactor meltdown.

Nature also fights back with diseases like AIDS, incurable TB, heart disease and many forms of cancer. The direct connection to our pollutants are obvious. Insects grow immune to our pesticides, as disease does to our vaccinations. Our vast numbers and decreasing space create in us a general feeling of emptiness and worthlessness. We do not belong to anything nor do we have any unique identity. How can any of us possibly live up to the images of life which we see every day on TV? We are bombarded by images that confuse us and create in us unrealistic expectations which we can never attain. The constant media blitz of unreality tears down the fiber of our society, a society which was workable only in a time of less people.

To those without hope, life is worth little. So why NOT steal from thy neighbor? Why NOT torture and mutilate for fun? If it makes you feel strong to make another weak and helpless, why NOT rape and humiliate? And for the ultimate power play, why NOT kill? Modern society teaches us that we can kill with impunity, so WHY NOT? If we should feel a tinge of guilt or hear the knock of retribution at our door, we need only change the channel or just turn off the set.

Due to our overcrowded situation, humans are no longer climbing the evolutionary ladder. No longer are we genetically improving our species. In fact, we seem to be "devolving." As millions more are born into a world of poverty and desperation, we descend further and further into a genetic morass. We are spawning generations of mental and physical defectives, devoid of man's innate "higher" qualities. These uncaring and unthinking semi-morons know little more than the instinct to survive and reproduce. Morality or ethics are not to be found in the vocabulary of these modern people. We continue to charge blindly onward, down the path of pathetic self-consumption.

We destroy our environment through our ravenous consumption and blanket our mother earth with our excrement. Mankind's flatulence turns our once blue skies a sickly brown and the fecal matter rains down upon us, turning our planet into a festering sewer. The truth is that human life is indeed worth very little and is actually worth more dead than alive. There are just too damn many of us!

I am not convinced that mankind will disappear from the planet entirely. I think it's possible that man may find a way to survive and see the dawn of a brighter day. However, I do NOT think it will happen until the population is greatly reduced. I foresee that a large catastrophe will occur to eliminate large numbers of us. This could be by a man-made or natural means, earthquake, nuclear war or perhaps a virulent new plague. Hopefully I'll die of old age before it happens.

I would also say that I do not justify or condone murder or any of the other behaviors I write of here. I am only stating that some people will kill and in doing so serve as slaves to evolution. What virtue and nobility is left to humankind should be cherished while it still exists.