The general idea...

Recently, I wrote a new artist statement to attempt to tie the various threads of my thinking process into one cohesive thought.

It's an ever-evolving process, for my ideas have a way of drifting in different directions over time. No doubt in a few years I will rework it again.

But for those who are interested, here is the general direction of my artistic inquiry at this time...

The work of Christopher Mangum explores a variety of different ideas, but many of those ideas share common threads.

There is an ever-present quest for an objective Truth. Not mere facts, but the underlying Truths that bind our thoughts and culture together, which it seems most of the time we try to avoid thinking about.

Also, he explores his fascination with the Insider and the Outsider. To some extent, all of us are Insiders—inside of our various clubs and cliques, inside of our families and businesses, inside of our nationality and other markers of collective identity.

And yet we are also all marked as Outsiders. Everything that makes us unique and individual separates us from one group or another. Our separation from political power or macro-economic decisions can make us Outsiders. At times we can even feel like Outsiders within our own groups and colleagues, when we explore personal questions that are separate from theirs.

Nearly everything in our society can be expressed as some type of  Inside vs. Outside duality.

Where this thread of investigations will ultimately lead is unknown at this time, however there is some small hope that it may lead a step or two closer to that ultimate Truth that is so difficult to define.

A brief postscript... if the use of the third-person narrative voice seems odd, I can only say that it seems to be the standard format in the art world. I don't really know why.