Artist.
“1999″
Acrylic on Canvas, 42×42 inches, 1999
I made this painting in the summer of 1999, after finishing my first year of college. This was one of 3 paintings in the series. The idea of this painting came to me after I started it, I initially was just painting abstract lines and shapes then filling them in with color, when I decided to put in some “hidden symbolism.” Symbolism that would only have a meaning to me. Look for the following: 4 suns with different shapes; 3 triangles blue red and yellow; the letters spelling L-I-F-E; a imagine of The Scream; a door; a Jewish star in yellow; a sperm; four circles bunched together (the beginning of life); and a pregnant women in the middle. Each of these symbols had meaning in my life that year. The imagine of The Scream and the theme of life all came from a pivotal moment in my life that occurred that year. It was a Wednesday night about 7:30 PM in March, I was walking from my class to the library on campus and I stopped because I came to a realization in my life at that moment, I felt a kind of internal scream. That thought is still effecting me today, even though it’s hard to describe in words. I was working on the African mask paintings and the reason I applied it to this painting was that a person wearing a mask could be anyone and I didn’t want to apply the figure in the painting with a specific person.