Painting: Oil on Canvas.

Painted: 2019

Size: 20″ X 20″

Owner: In Storage

Music Selection:  Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix

To fully appreciate this painting, indulge me and let’s follow Alice down a rabbit hole. When the modern art movement was in full push, the drink Absinthe was very popular with these artists. There were claims that this drink influenced the artist’s perception and maybe it did slightly. Their bohemian lifestyle probably had more to do with it than Absinthe. These painters challenged everything we took as harden rules of painting and they asked why should we follow your rules?  They changed the art world forever. In the sixties artists experimented with drugs, and it too may have influenced their work somewhat, but it was the artist and not the chemical that created the art. Real art comes from the heart and intellect. It does not come from a bottle or the drug you take. Too many artists have wasted their lives looking for that magic substance that will take away their pain and allow them to communicate through their art.

This painting is not about Absinthe. It is about losing control once you’ve overindulged. After a long night of indulging the protagonist crashes. The next day they must live with what they did and what they said. There are members of my family that are what we call mean drunks. Their loss of control damaged relationships. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube you cannot put it back. Sadly, they never seemed to learn that staying sober solves this problem. They continue to wade through life like a wrecking ball until they’re alone and isolated.

The background is a pseudo cubistic attempt to show the protagonist in a restless dream state. Before I painted this canvas, I experimented with a wholly cubistic painting. It had my familiar chaotic background and was painted on a wood panel. I showed it to a small group, and explained to the audience that it was simply a practice piece for another work. Afterwards I was approached by a sweet little lady that told me she loved it, so it had to go home with her. She had it professionally framed, and it hangs in her home today.  It was of violins and bottles of wine. It came out nice but was only practice for this painting. I’m just glad someone liked it. This painting, like every painting, had some experimental qualities. The background is much less cubistic than its experimental partner, and I believe I was able to maintain that feel of chaos. The protagonist was painted more female, but it is really an androgynous person so anyone can relate to the moment. These are questions for the viewer. What does this painting mean to you? Have you ever found yourself in this position? Do you have friends or a parent that might fit inside the painting? How do you deal with the embarrassment the day after? Are you a helpless witness to this event? How does this make you feel on a gut level? This painting is a window. It is only a reflection. I simply wanted the viewer to reflect on this problem. My hope is this is an alien subject. I painted this knowing no one would ever want to hang this in their home. It violates the purpose of paintings as home décor or to generate fond memories, but I felt I had to paint it anyway.