Bijijoo (given name: Michael Todd Horne; preferred nickname: B) was born in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) in 1975 and has lived in New York City; Seattle, Washington; and Eugene, Oregon. B currently resides in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter. B has been painting and drawing since childhood. He has experimented with figurative, abstract and conceptual work in a variety of media, including writing, music and video (an archive of B’s music from 1993-2017 can be found here). B diverged from art practice to pursue technical studies in mathematics, physics, computer science and chemistry, culminating in a Ph.D. in biophysics in 2008 (select scientific publications can be found here). He then returned to painting by creating several series of surrealist works, including The Presidential Ham ,Celebrity Still Life , and The Arthropod Companion . After pausing to remodel an old house and become a father, he began resetting his painting practice in 2018. B’s current work draws on his technical background in math, science and computer programming, as well as his young daughter’s imagination and love of monsters. B has a day job working at Nike at the interface of digital design & innovation and intellectual property.
Statement
Bijijoo’s paintings result from process-driven experimentation with painting media and automatic drawing, using traditional and digital techniques. He builds mixed media layers to amplify interplays of light, color, and texture. Images are conjured from chaos, in a process akin to divination. The forms that take shape trend toward human and animal: grotesque exaggerations of life, monstrous cartoons, vanitas. Narratives emerge through these interactions, reflecting struggle, celebration, and introspection. The results depict experiences, interactions, and movements frozen in a personal space and time.
