Nick C. Kirk also known by the moniker Train embarked on a much more thought provoking series of work in 2002. This series of work was confined to ideas, drawing and blueprints within his sketchbooks until 2010. “When I started, I didn’t fully understand what I wanted to say in these pieces, nor did I really understand why I was coming up with the ideas. I wanted to keep all my thoughts silent until I felt I understood where I was going with the series before I started to physically produce the work. While in undergrad, my work was very aesthetic based vs. mental. I had a great family life and upbringing, no dramatic movie type experiences or any personal issues I needed to express through my art. I was just enjoying what I saw at that time in my life, and made work as I saw it. I mainly worked on a stylized equestrian series of paintings and bronzes. I always had a ton of different ideas/series for work ranging in minimalism to contemporary and realism. Just trying to get out every idea to see if I wanted to keep going with it, or move onto the next. I felt not making specific themed art because it’s not what you normally make was a terrible reason not to try it. I believe I have taken something from every piece I’ve made and it’s made the artist I am today. Now back to school. I fancied architecture and the figurative form, which I found myself drawing over and over. Once in a while I would come up with a very kitsch and garish piece that seemed to come from nowhere. I later found myself attracted more and more to the idea of over the top showy images that almost seemed to make a mockery of itself. Art imitating art. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of collage images that brought new meanings. In 2010 I realized I wanted to make work that imitated life. A life that many people don’t realize is forced upon them. My art isn’t saying what is right or wrong, or what should be allowed and what should be censored. My work is simply the the dots on a page. Each viewer will connect them the way they want. The work is very broad in terms of specific points and statements to be made. It is also very broad in the mediums, which I feel is unnecessary to confine. As far as general ideas, it consists of the kitsch, ready made, manufactured, commercialized pop culture that we live in, as well as issues in morality, politics and religion.” You will find many popular images in his work that convey his memory as a child growing up in the late 80′s and his teenage years of the mid 90′s. “You may get it, you may not,” says Nick. “Some people will just see images they recognize and enjoy it for the ‘fun factor’, but hopefully at least a few will recognize underlying connotations within. For me it’s about understanding my past in terms of society childhood innocence vs. the realizations I see as an adult. It’s not just about all that comes with the changing in evolution of electronics and machinery, but the perception of life each individual conveys as they mature from childhood adolescence to adulthood. Children have a raw unknowing and almost gullible perception on life, and when you grow older, you realize life is very much different than what you once knew. I realize that how I was as a child was a product of my environment, mainly encompassed by the picture painted to me by my parents, images and memories that I was allowed to absorb. As an adult, I am in charge of what I take in and what I decide not to, or so I thought. Society is overwhelmed with such a variety of new propaganda that many people can’t make choices on their own, and are often bombarded with Big Business public imagery that are forced upon them when out of the comfort of their home. Big Business learned that art is a powerful weapon in advertisement, but we as Artists must take that power back. All art is propaganda. It’s what you do with it that makes the difference.”
