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Nolan Haan with DNA• acrylic on silk • 72 x 36 inches• $8500 USD
DNA• acrylic on silk
72" x 36"    
• $8,500
Hi. I'm Nolan. Although I look fairly normal, my family thinks I've gone completely insane. You see, I used to be a successful wildlife artist. Then one day something happened. To my family's chagrin, I left unfinished a painting of a pack of wolves and instead unveiled a painting of a cinder block wall. No, it was not a psychotic break. I had an epiphany. Here's what happened:
I had recently finished a large painting of a peacock. It was my masterpiece, and everyone wanted me to leave it for them in my will. But in the back of my mind I thought, "Of course it's beautiful. When your subject is a peacock, you're going to end up with a beautiful painting." To sustain an art career, I needed to be challenged, and painting pretty things was just too easy. I kept my antenna up for something entirely novel to inspire me. 
One afternoon, after a long day of painting, I sat in my basement studio, sipping a cocktail. I stared at the old, paint splattered cinder block walls and suddenly thought, "Those walls are amazing. What if I did a painting of a concrete block wall?"  A concept was born. 
It took six months of experimenting to produce a realistic wall, inventing techniques along the way. I had always painted on Belgian linen, but the weave of the canvas compromised the illusion of cement. In desperation, I tried a piece of silk. Voila, I had found my medium. But how do I justify such an unusual point of view? 
I believe art should be unexpected. It should surprise you and challenge you in some way. It should transform your awareness and definition of beauty. A Campbell's soup can was never considered art worthy until Andy Warhol's unique vision made it so. Lichtenstein discovered the overlooked importance of comics and elevated them into a high art form. Pollock found beauty in paint inadvertently splattered on his studio floor. For ages, artists before him had spilled paint, but only Pollock saw in it something special. Because of Pollock, I am fascinated with what is at my feet, the unintended abstractions that nobody sees. Because of Warhol, I learned that something as banal as a soup can (or a cinder block) can achieve eminence if painted with respect and presented in an elegant manner. And Lichtenstein taught me that  any subject  can transcend it origins and be considered museum worthy. 
I decided to champion the overlooked, the invisible, the unnoticed. I am training myself to discover the extraordinary qualities in things that most people find ordinary. This greatly enhances my appreciation of the world around me. Unintended masterpieces passed by every day, never noticed. It's easy to enjoy the beauty of a flower, a peacock, or