Patrick W. Welch
Encyclopedia
Patrick W. Welch was an English
painter, illustrator, cartoonist, and art professor who lived in Chicago
, Illinois
, United States
. He billed himself as "Patrick W. Welch, Painter of Hate," a spoof/homage to Thomas Kinkade
, Painter of Light.
, England and attended state schools. He earned a BA in graphic design from the Norwich School of Art in 1987 and an MA in illustration from the Royal College of Art
in 1991. In 1993 Welch gained cult status for "The Hippogryph Files," a series of graphic short stories that appeared in The Baffler
, Pulse!
, and numerous comics anthologies, as well as being printed as postcards. Welch shared a London studio with illustrator Mikey Georgeson, better known as The Vessel from the indie-pop band David Devant & His Spirit Wife
.
In 1995 Welch moved to the United States with his American wife, Carrie Golus. During the 1990s Welch and Golus co-edited a short-lived comics anthology, Thurn & Taxis.
Welch taught sequential art at Savannah College of Art and Design
in Savannah, Georgia, from 1995 to 1998. In 1998 Welch moved to Chicago, where he became a professor of media arts and animation at the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago. Beginning in 1998, Welch collaborated with Golus on a series of non-fiction political/social comics for the alternative weekly newspaper Newcity
as well as a comic strip, "Alternator," which ran in The Stranger
, UR Chicago
, and other alternative weeklies.
Beginning in 2001, Welch began to gain recognition for his painting. His solo painting exhibitions at Gescheidle Gallery in Chicago, where he was represented from 2002 until his death in 2008, included Revenge: The Miniature Hate Paintings of Patrick W. Welch (2002), Patrick W. Welch versus The Village of Schaumburg: Miniature Redemption Paintings (2004), Art Destroys: More Miniature Hate Paintings and Mini-Insult Blocks from Patrick W. Welch (2005), and I now know more than you ever will (2008), which was his final exhibition.
Welch's paintings were often autobiographical, combining violent subject matter with black humour. He is perhaps best known for his "Miniature Hate Paintings," which evoke a strange combination of childhood nightmare and adult neurosis, drawing on references from contemporary fine art, comic books, and science fiction. His "Miniature Insult Blocks," painted on 1" x 2" blocks of wood, detailed English playground childhood insults in, according to Welch's description, "the saccahrine colours of boiled sweets."
Commenting in Chicago's Newcity critic Michael Workman writes:
"Welch has been on a ride into the infinite regress of his distaste for human existence for years now, and it's a testament to his obduration that he's managed to keep lively each self-reference as the fecal discharge of famous mainstream artists. Most successful, however, are the grid of even tinier acrylic panels, "Mini Insult Blocks" as he calls them, each emblazoned with an insulting word such as plonker or bumbandit. Every time I encounter these paintings, it's never the frothy sense of loathing that wins me over, but the undeniable, laugh-out-loud funny humor of them all, an aspect of the work that no doubt has the capacity to elevate them even further into that stratosphere of the imaginary world beyond."
, Welch was well known, liked and respected as one the most notable teachers in the Animation department. Classes he had taught included Acting for Animation, Story-boarding, Drawing and Characterization, Character Design, Advanced Life Drawing (occasionally) and Portfolio classes. Welch taught alongside Lindsay Grace
at the school.
Part of his popularity may have been due to his delightfully morose personality quirks. He was known for his self-deprecating humor and detached, bleak outlook on the world, while maintaining a generally positive disposition in spite of it. While generally portraying himself as a pessimist in regard to society at large, he was undeniably an optimist in regard to the ability and potential of his students. Welch was in the habit of indicating an imminent break to the students attending his lectures with the words "Come on everyone, these cigarettes are not going to smoke themselves".
, Steve Keene
, Paul Nudd, James J. Peterson, and Eric Doeringer
.
The group became known not only for its premise of small art, but also for its commercial practice of selling art at lower prices, adjusted for the income of the buyer. Their first shows were mentioned in Chicago and national art media for these reasons and for the participation of notable artists such as Drummond and Keene.
Crouse, Charity. Exhibit Explores America's Fascination with Guns, Streetwise, Street Scene,
December 17
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
painter, illustrator, cartoonist, and art professor who lived in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He billed himself as "Patrick W. Welch, Painter of Hate," a spoof/homage to Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade is an American painter of popular and commercial realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company...
, Painter of Light.
Career
Welch was born in BillericayBillericay
Billericay is a town and civil parish in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, has a population of 40,000, and constitutes a commuter town east of central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces...
, England and attended state schools. He earned a BA in graphic design from the Norwich School of Art in 1987 and an MA in illustration from the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
in 1991. In 1993 Welch gained cult status for "The Hippogryph Files," a series of graphic short stories that appeared in The Baffler
The Baffler
The Baffler is a left-wing magazine of cultural, political, and business criticism that was founded in 1988 and published until the spring of 2007. It was revived in 2009, with the first issue of Volume 2 published in January 2010...
, Pulse!
Pulse!
Pulse! was a tabloid magazine published by Tower Records which contained record reviews, interviews and advertising. Initially, it was given away free in their stores to promote their record sales. After nine years, in 1992, the magazine began national distribution with a cover price of $2.95,...
, and numerous comics anthologies, as well as being printed as postcards. Welch shared a London studio with illustrator Mikey Georgeson, better known as The Vessel from the indie-pop band David Devant & His Spirit Wife
David Devant & His Spirit Wife
David Devant and His Spirit Wife are an indie/art rock band from Brighton, England. They are named after the English magician and early film exhibitor, David Devant .-History:David Devant and His Spirit Wife formed in Brighton in the early 1990s...
.
In 1995 Welch moved to the United States with his American wife, Carrie Golus. During the 1990s Welch and Golus co-edited a short-lived comics anthology, Thurn & Taxis.
Welch taught sequential art at Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design
SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, is a private, accredited and degree-granting university with locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France.-History:...
in Savannah, Georgia, from 1995 to 1998. In 1998 Welch moved to Chicago, where he became a professor of media arts and animation at the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago. Beginning in 1998, Welch collaborated with Golus on a series of non-fiction political/social comics for the alternative weekly newspaper Newcity
Newcity
Newcity is an independent, free weekly newspaper in Chicago that specializes in music, stage, film and art and is notable for launching the careers of numerous cartoonists and writers and art critics. The publication was described by the Chicago Tribune as "sophisticated" and as an "alternative...
as well as a comic strip, "Alternator," which ran in The Stranger
The Stranger (newspaper)
The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...
, UR Chicago
UR Chicago
UR Chicago is a free, independent, monthly magazine covering regional and national lifestyles and entertainment. The magazine focuses on nightlife, music, theater, art, film, dining, and fashion mainly in the Chicago area. The magazine also offers in-depth feature reporting...
, and other alternative weeklies.
Beginning in 2001, Welch began to gain recognition for his painting. His solo painting exhibitions at Gescheidle Gallery in Chicago, where he was represented from 2002 until his death in 2008, included Revenge: The Miniature Hate Paintings of Patrick W. Welch (2002), Patrick W. Welch versus The Village of Schaumburg: Miniature Redemption Paintings (2004), Art Destroys: More Miniature Hate Paintings and Mini-Insult Blocks from Patrick W. Welch (2005), and I now know more than you ever will (2008), which was his final exhibition.
Welch's paintings were often autobiographical, combining violent subject matter with black humour. He is perhaps best known for his "Miniature Hate Paintings," which evoke a strange combination of childhood nightmare and adult neurosis, drawing on references from contemporary fine art, comic books, and science fiction. His "Miniature Insult Blocks," painted on 1" x 2" blocks of wood, detailed English playground childhood insults in, according to Welch's description, "the saccahrine colours of boiled sweets."
Commenting in Chicago's Newcity critic Michael Workman writes:
"Welch has been on a ride into the infinite regress of his distaste for human existence for years now, and it's a testament to his obduration that he's managed to keep lively each self-reference as the fecal discharge of famous mainstream artists. Most successful, however, are the grid of even tinier acrylic panels, "Mini Insult Blocks" as he calls them, each emblazoned with an insulting word such as plonker or bumbandit. Every time I encounter these paintings, it's never the frothy sense of loathing that wins me over, but the undeniable, laugh-out-loud funny humor of them all, an aspect of the work that no doubt has the capacity to elevate them even further into that stratosphere of the imaginary world beyond."
Animation instructor
As a teacher at the Illinois Institute of Art - ChicagoIllinois Institute of Art - Chicago
The Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago is part of The Art Institutes, a system of for-profit proprietary colleges focusing on creative industries....
, Welch was well known, liked and respected as one the most notable teachers in the Animation department. Classes he had taught included Acting for Animation, Story-boarding, Drawing and Characterization, Character Design, Advanced Life Drawing (occasionally) and Portfolio classes. Welch taught alongside Lindsay Grace
Lindsay Grace
Lindsay Grace is a new media artist and professor who currently lives in Chicago, Illinois United States.- Career :He is the C. Michael Armstrong Professor in the School of Fine Arts and the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies at Miami University Miami University...
at the school.
Part of his popularity may have been due to his delightfully morose personality quirks. He was known for his self-deprecating humor and detached, bleak outlook on the world, while maintaining a generally positive disposition in spite of it. While generally portraying himself as a pessimist in regard to society at large, he was undeniably an optimist in regard to the ability and potential of his students. Welch was in the habit of indicating an imminent break to the students attending his lectures with the words "Come on everyone, these cigarettes are not going to smoke themselves".
Micromentalists
In 2006, Welch started an art movement collectively known as the Micromentalists. The general philosophy of the group was that art need not be "monumental" in scale to be important, and has been described as "pseudo-Marxist". Welch's purpose in putting together the Micromentalists was to start an art movement based on this philosophy. Founding members included artists Bill DrummondBill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
, Steve Keene
Steve Keene
Stephen Keene is an American artist who believes in mass producing hand painted works of art for the masses. He was called the "Assembly-Line Picasso" by Time magazine...
, Paul Nudd, James J. Peterson, and Eric Doeringer
Eric Doeringer
Eric Doeringer is an artist currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Brown University in 1996 with a B.A. and received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1999...
.
The group became known not only for its premise of small art, but also for its commercial practice of selling art at lower prices, adjusted for the income of the buyer. Their first shows were mentioned in Chicago and national art media for these reasons and for the participation of notable artists such as Drummond and Keene.
2007
- New American Paintings, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA
- Stabler, Bert. Giving it All Away, The Chicago Reader
- Waxman, Lori. The Micromentalists, artforum.com, March 13
- Austin, Jake. Let's Get Small, Chicago Journal
- Kelly, Dan. Micromentalism and Patrick Welch, Gapers Block. http://www.gapersblock.com/detour/micromentalism_and_patrick_welch/
- Kaufman, Justin. Hello Fellow, Hello Beautiful. WBEZ Chicago. http://www.wbez.org/content.aspx?audioID=13454
2005
- Workman, Michael. Eye Exam, Border Patrol, Newcity, December
- The Basil H. Alkazzi Foundation: a celebration of twenty years association between the Foundation and the Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Press, illustrations pages 60 and 61
2004
- Sill, Robert. think small!, Illinois State Museum Society, (catalogue), page 17, 64, illustration page 52
2002
- Camper, Fred. Hated/ Liberated, Chicago Reader, Section 1, page 26, September 20
- Sanders, Seth. An Artist's Revenge, Chicago Reader, Section 1, page 9, September 13
- New American Paintings, Open Studios Press, Boston, MA
- Smith, Ulysses. Chicago Reader, interview, Section 1, page 30, January 18
2001
- Keller, Julia. 9/11 adds new urgency to strips, Chicago Tribune, review/interview with illustrations, Tempo, Section 5, December 27
Crouse, Charity. Exhibit Explores America's Fascination with Guns, Streetwise, Street Scene,
December 17
- Hawkins, Margaret. Gallery Glance, Chicago Sun-Times, Section N5, June 15
- Keller, Julia, Sketchy Reports, Chicago Tribune, review/interview with illustrations, Tempo, Section 5, pages 8–9, June 20
- Green, Nick. For the Love of Comics, Chicago Social, interview with illustration, page 30, June
2000
- Mason, Robert. A Digital Dolly?, Norwich: Norwich School of Art and Design Press, Norwich, Eng., pp. 44–45, 54; illustration 22
External links
- http://www.patrickwwelch.com/
- http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=26217
- http://www.twocoatsofpaint.com/2008/10/patrick-w-welch-untimely-death-in.html