I'd like to mention a few things about this new piece... first, that it is the culmination of my failure to express key issues ... The Mermaid in the front came from a sketch I kept making of Caiden Cowger... if anyone follows TYT on youtube, you may remember a few months back, a show about this very homophobic young man, who started his own rush-limbaugh-esque talk show spewing anti-homosexual rhetoric. The most shocking aspect was that Caiden was 14 years old at the time. This kid became an overnight sensation; the very epitome of engrained homophobia in our society... our language... everywhere. I struggled with the image of him and ended up turning him into a magical mermaid, wanting him so badly to be a fairy tale and set him in the middle a heterosexual love quest.
In the background plays a bluegrass band, and faintly planted next to them is the Bonnie Blue Flag, a prominent symbol of the Confederate States of America. Look, as you may know from my earlier posts, I love the south, I love its rebelliousness, its hospitality, its laid-back approach to life, and I understand the honor in defending your homeland from oppression... but as we all know, at the core of the old south is once again... racism, elitism, and staunch conservatism that breeds little shit bags like Caiden Cowger.
All the creatures in this painting look peaceful, but they are symbols of key issues we face today that stand in the way of the virtue of equality, and I don't think you would know that at first glance. Is this painting successful? Not totally I guess... I just tried to stick with my subjects... I felt bad for them, and banished them to their own little corner of the forest where they can have each other.
xoxo