Throwback Thursday

This was the first painting I finished that ended up in my MFA thesis exhibition.  It was originally titled “2:37pm”  because that was about the time that the sunlight was creeping through my studio window.  This painting started out as a drawing of just the colored dots with Felix the Cat in the corner.  I was trying to find an alternative environment for the figures I was painting back then (this is a self-portrait) and I decided to take these pop art drawings I has been doing and create murals in my studio to act as a backdrop for my portraits.  I didn’t want any specific, recognizable space, and these bizarre, random, pop art backgrounds served as a way to create an ambiguous and thought provoking setting for these seemingly stoic models.  

I never had a logical reason for not finishing the stool, although it was a conscious choice.  The small still life hanging on the wall was a painting I had recently finished and acted as an homage to “life painting,” which the end result was not (my critics were very unaccepting of the use of photographs).  

The final element of me peeling the clementine was a last minute decision, yet Ive been told it is the most successful part of this painting, conceptually speaking.  It is the only element of action, and acts as the focus of which all other visual elements revolve, or so Ive been told.