This is my new piece called "Sleeps with the Fishes". My submission to PONSHOP Ciotti Colori show.
I never like getting into the "story" behind the paintings I do. I prefer to let people guess, amazingly they are usually right on with at least the "feelings" of it all.
In this one, you see a corpse of a girl just beginning to deteriorate. Suspended in water, surrounded by fish waiting to feed on her flesh. Floating in nothingness.
I could have gotten my message across with a more specific painting. One of me sitting at a desk in an office at the USDA. Irritated with a job that I don't feel means much to me. Doing what I need to do to pay for those things my child needs; which is a lot. But what would be the fun in that?
The term starving artist does not sit well with me. Refusing to give into "the man", not selling out, spending your energy and time on your art. I can see the romanticism in it. And if I didn't have a little tiny person who depends on me, I might just do it. I can't see myself feeling very creative if I'm looking at my child's face begging for food though. So I sit day in and day out at a job I hate wishing I could be somewhere painting. I steal moments here and there, breaks and lunches to sketch or read about art. Like the subject in my painting, I feel suspended, dead, predators eating chunks out of my life.
Unlike the girl in this painting, there will be a happy ending for me though. I will get to where I want to be eventually it'll just take a little more time. Meanwhile, I will paint out my frustrations and I hope people will appreciate the stories.
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