Step on up, folks. You won't believe your eyes.

The paintings are hard to see, these is just so much there. They are big and oh so shiny -an intricate maze of aggressive pattern and gaudy color that owes as much to the horror vaccui of folk art and the Chicago tradition as to formal manipulation. This is layered onto graphic sexual imagery mixed with the mundane, as well as a rich personal iconography.

Torluemke serves as his own Everyman - the stories, memories, and fantasies that fuel the paintings, even if not explicit enough for us to read, charge them with palpable energy and references that resonate even if we dare not acknowledge their source. Like the barely-hidden mysteries of the carnival, these paintings are powerful, but, if we are not so brave,we could back off and just enjoy the colors and cotton candy.

Carnival of Images exhibit essay,
Michael Bulka, 2000

Louie Will Slug Her, 1999, 9 x 12', sign enamel on canvas

Expectorant, 1999, acrylic, 8 x 8" acrylic on canvas

95 to Life Pop That Cap 1999, 8 x 8" acrylic on canvas