Oil paint sticks on canvas. 30x30 inches. 2024.
I painted Bosses Eating Employees after reporting inappropriate relationships that Barton Springs pool managers in their 30s were having with young lifeguards. The relationships began when the lifeguards were over 18, but they had been first hired at ages 16 and 17. The Aquatics supervisor retaliated against me by filing a complaint to HR. The City of Austin hired an external law firm for $20,000 to investigate me. In the complaint, my boss wrote that 'Cobb claims to be an artist'—attempting to delegitimize not just the work, but my right to make it. This response confirmed the painting's thesis: institutions deploy violence—financial, legal, and existential—to suppress challenges to their authority. The phrase 'claims to be' reveals how power operates by denying the legitimacy of those who expose the abuse of it.
Oil paint sticks on canvas. 30x30 inches. 2024.
I painted Bosses Eating Employees after reporting inappropriate relationships that Barton Springs pool managers in their 30s were having with young lifeguards. The relationships began when the lifeguards were over 18, but they had been first hired at ages 16 and 17. The Aquatics supervisor retaliated against me by filing a complaint to HR. The City of Austin hired an external law firm for $20,000 to investigate me. In the complaint, my boss wrote that 'Cobb claims to be an artist'—attempting to delegitimize not just the work, but my right to make it. This response confirmed the painting's thesis: institutions deploy violence—financial, legal, and existential—to suppress challenges to their authority. The phrase 'claims to be' reveals how power operates by denying the legitimacy of those who expose the abuse of it.
