Big Gulp aka Soft Machine
2008
acrylic on organic cotton and hemp
38" x 38"
The Big Gulpwas created after a conversation with my daughter about her first term College English class. She was studying Science Fiction and was attempted to read William Burroughs' Soft Machine. I have read many of the beat authors and their books but I had as of yet not read this one. When I asked her to explain the book to me she said it's a book about nonsense-nothing in it makes sense.
Even though I feel there may be more to it than that, after this conversation I thought I would make a painting that had no real pre-conceived direction. The goat on the top right is an "homage to Picasso" and also a greeting to a friend of mine who told me a story of his youth. He had a goat who broke his leg and he begged his parents to fix the broken limb and not put the goat down.
On the bottom left is a "beetle" which was also a "howdoyoudo" to another friend who made me a stained glass piece with four beetles to honor my love of John, George, Paul and Ringo. The female body on the top right I painted after discovering the multitude of variations of a woman's hoo haw via movies.
On the bottom right is a "woman" being eaten by piranhas, which to me represented life eating away at one.
The two dogs are Bella and Sophie. Bella is the upside down dog (she lives next door to me and is my dog's best friend). The blue and white dog is my dog Sophie a Border Collie mix.
With some of the leaves on the bottom I tried to capture the muti-coloredness of leaves.
The chicken is from my daughter youth. Her name is Belinda and she was my daughter's best friend for a short time when my daughter was young.
