I still remember the feeling in my gut when I wore skates...it was a freedom like no other...there was a time in my childhood when I skated circles in my parents basement... round and round, over and over...pretending I was in a championship race, or a graceful performer...sometimes it was on an iced pond, or at an indoor rink with friends with blaring rock and roll in the background...or just quality time with my thoughts outside...I loved my skates over any other childhood item. I'm quite certain I'd break a hip if I got on them now. If I had health insurance, I may be more willing to take that risk just to get back that wonderful feeling for a fleeting moment.
If you are lucky, you've had that one kiss that swept you off your feet, made you feel like you are floating, that time itself stopped.
If you are lucky in love, you have that kiss everyday when you wake up... Maybe you are still searching for that kiss... or maybe you are trying to hang on to that kiss... ...or maybe, you are mourning it's loss. No matter your path, always...ALWAYS...love. I set out to sketch with over-fishing in mind...i pictured a tiny boat with tens of thousands of fish being hoisted up into the boat with a gigantic net that dwarfed the boat...i googled over-fishing...and I shed a tear or maybe two. Some of these ocean sweeping vessels are pure evil monstrosities that scrape every inch of life from a lively section of ocean.
My sensitive nature didn't allow me to further explore the vast destruction that is happening now in our seas, so I reigned in those images that were flooding my brain thus avoiding a bleeding ulcer and a mental collapse. I brought it back to simpler times and how on a smaller level, we can all over consume, or, hit the lottery. This image could bring about feelings of bountiful riches and goodness, or it could be construed as greed...either way, here is a boy fishing...and me sleeping well, Amen. Gallerists have often accused me of having "too many hands", and that has never bothered me. Utilizing multiple hands, or working in multiple mediums, gives me the visual freedom I crave....
There are lots of ways to tell stories in visual language, I'm in it for the stories. Everyone should have a voice. Sometimes, we love the natural world so much, we squeeze the life out of it.
No One to target No One to charge Not One to blame You see now We are one and the same Image and words from the series "Battlefield" from Erin Thomas.
See the current collection at erinthomas.art/battlefield ahhh....that age old question...which came first, the chicken, or the egg?
Most people do not spend time questioning this basic philosophical question. Since the question doesn't specify that it's a chicken egg, than the answer is probably..."the egg came first" ....but of course, there needed something to lay the egg... Either way....the egg is the most perfect creation... life allowed to continue, to develop in a perfectly delicate womb that has everything it needs within... and also an amusing Halloween trick that strips the hardiest of paint off your truck. I should have painted this in egg tempura. A project for another day. Traditionally, "subjugate" would be a word used to describe humans dominating over other humans... but here, I wanted to illustrate nature dominating human and that was the word that repeated in my mind while I was painting.
This is one way to characterize both my distress and respect for nature...I fear the smallest dominators in nature... bacteria, viruses, cancers....and I revere the greatest in nature...sun, ocean, mountains. I also fear the knowledge that nature will take care of humans in order to save itself if it must. So here, I will just lie down and allow my bacterium to contribute to a flower, and accept this force that is greater than I. I will probably paint and draw this subject a few more times in order to allow myself more consideration on this subject. "Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter." Ecclesiastes 10:20
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