14" x 12"
oil on canvas
This is one of those paintings that talks back to you.
I watched a movie the other night called "Facing the Habit" about the struggle of heroin addiction and new (successful) unconventional treatments. I was surprised at the end it said that 9 out of 10 addicts never recover. I don't need to tell you, that's pretty bad odds and another figure they threw out is that 500 new people try heroin everyday. That's pretty sad.
Well this brings us to this painting. I have always wanted to do a "stacked" painting and I was looking into my file of inspiration (not metaphorically, it's a real file) and pulled out the monkey, dog and orange and thought they looked really well together so I went with it and had a blast painting it. Later, I connected it to the addiction. The monkey is the burden of addiction and the addiction needs to be fed. It'll probably mean different things to everybody, but this is what it means to me.
Wow! I would never had expected that background on the painting, but now that you mention it, it is so clear..
ReplyDeleteSO great and fun.Love the cropping of the dog.
ReplyDeleteI love this painting and what you wrote about addiction gives it a deeper meaning. Your cropping of the dog and colors are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteGreat painting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the story about the heroin. Frightening statistics.
I admire your connecting it to the painting because it become so clearly about that.