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Paintings
Love in the Time of Covid
Being separated from someone you want to keep close evokes a certain emotion. This painting aims to capture that feeling, which has become such a big part of our lives in the past few months. It is titled "Love in the Time of COVID," which refers to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 1985 novel "Love in the Time of Cholera." His book tells the story of a couple who fell in love during their teenage years, were separated, and then rekindled their romance over 50 years later. His novel declares lovesickness a disease that can cause so much mental anguish it takes a physical toll. I began this painting at the beginning of the pandemic, and originally intended it to be a statement regarding a single relationship. As the pandemic spread and necessitated further-reaching isolation, it occurred to me this bottled-up feeling I was experiencing was actually a global sentiment: so many people in the world are being kept apart from one another.
The painting depicts two figures trapped in bottles. The color of the glass is a specific coral pink which was commonly used in the manufacturing of Depression glass. The term “Depression glass” refers to a style of colorful, affordable glassware that was popular in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1920’s and 1930’s, roughly the same time period as the setting for Marquez’s novel. The figures reach for each other, but do not touch, demonstrating both their yearning for each other and their fear of infection. In his book, “Blue Dog,” George Rodrigue expressed this concept so poetically with the description “Always there's that space between what you feel and what you do, and in that gap, all human sadness lies.” In my painting, human sadness resides between those two fingertips.
This painting also explores the concept of truth. The bottles represent the figures’ perceptions of truth, which can not be escaped and can never accommodate another person. It doesn’t matter how much you love a person; you can never know their heart entirely. The figures reside in their own truths, colored by the glass they live within. Understanding can only exist somewhere in between the two disparate perceptions.
The painting depicts two figures trapped in bottles. The color of the glass is a specific coral pink which was commonly used in the manufacturing of Depression glass. The term “Depression glass” refers to a style of colorful, affordable glassware that was popular in the United States during the Great Depression in the 1920’s and 1930’s, roughly the same time period as the setting for Marquez’s novel. The figures reach for each other, but do not touch, demonstrating both their yearning for each other and their fear of infection. In his book, “Blue Dog,” George Rodrigue expressed this concept so poetically with the description “Always there's that space between what you feel and what you do, and in that gap, all human sadness lies.” In my painting, human sadness resides between those two fingertips.
This painting also explores the concept of truth. The bottles represent the figures’ perceptions of truth, which can not be escaped and can never accommodate another person. It doesn’t matter how much you love a person; you can never know their heart entirely. The figures reside in their own truths, colored by the glass they live within. Understanding can only exist somewhere in between the two disparate perceptions.
Shed Your Skin
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and had to have surgery and undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy. I made this painting in response to that.
Sleeping With Ghost
This painting draws from two separate concepts. The first concept is Ouroboros, which is a symbol depicting a snake eating its own tail. This concept dates back to the 14th century BC and has several interpretations. One is that the Ouroboros symbolizes the life cycle; birth, life, and death are all encompassed in the image. Another interpretation is that Ouroboros is a symbol of fertility, where the end of the tail is a phallic symbol and the mouth is a representation of the womb. Both of these interpretations apply to the concept of this painting, which alludes to the cyclical nature of romantic relationships. Specifically, it refers to how people who have been in abusive or traumatizing relationships seek out people who will recreate and continue the pattern of abuse that they are familiar with.
The second concept that this painting draws on the book "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Towards the beginning of the book, he describes his drawing of a snake that had swallowed an elephant. The first draft was mistaken for a hat, so to clarify the intention of his artwork, he drew a cutaway version showing the snake’s insides, as I have done with the snake in my painting. My intent with this painting is to portray a person who has been swallowed by their history with romantic relationships.
The second concept that this painting draws on the book "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Towards the beginning of the book, he describes his drawing of a snake that had swallowed an elephant. The first draft was mistaken for a hat, so to clarify the intention of his artwork, he drew a cutaway version showing the snake’s insides, as I have done with the snake in my painting. My intent with this painting is to portray a person who has been swallowed by their history with romantic relationships.
Gale Force Ambivalence
Ambivalence means that you can’t decide how to feel about something, whether it’s mundane or devastating.
Break
If someone behaves in an inappropriately sexual way towards you, it permanently ruins the relationship.
Compelled
Fear of abandonment can lead you to give compulsively.
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