Alex Trainor - Shark Snack

Shark Snack, drawing, 6" x 14" by Alex Trainor.      When I Grow Up, I Want To Be a Kid examines the ways in which childhood dreams are often unceremoniously pushed to the side to make way for the mundane obligations of adult life. Alex Trainor’s paintings propose a return to the perspective of a child, with an inquisitive point of view that begs its viewers to reconnect with their youthful self. Trainor integrates his childhood love for doodling into his current work stating: “The artwork in my youth was always a journey towards laughter.”  Trainor uses the term “situational imagination”-- a play on situational awareness– to describe his approach to creating this work. If situational awareness means a comprehension of one’s surroundings, situational imagination is a perspective of innocence and openness in viewing the world around you. It was this meditation on the perspective shift from childhood to adulthood that inspired Trainor’s “Dad” paintings. Having grown up as an Asian-