Grand Gestures

12" x 24" oil on Canvas.

This piece is about not-so-hidden agendas: Olive branching. It is something we are all guilty of. But, as the phrase goes, "It is easier to ask forgiveness than ask for permission." I wanted the roses' thorns and the roaches' prickly legs to make you uneasy. While clouds and the world remain stagnant, it is in the most selfish acts that we show how artfully flawed we are as a collective. Our desperate attempts to seem unimportant when we silently keep score and wonder why we never go anywhere.

This piece is particular to a friend of mine. He has the original sketch; I gave it to him. I feel like I gave him so many things in our friendship to try and overcompensate for my feeling of inadequacy. It was a losing battle. I kept putting up a facade that I was doing so much from the kindness of my heart. I made myself dispensable. Only to wonder why our relationship never grew and to realize in making myself unimportant, I became that to myself. I wrote a poem with the piece as followed:

"What has transpired here left an infestation of projections. Every score you keep as you contemplate every good deed. Every instance you believe to be unfair: is the unanimous agreement of asinine humanity.

If your kindness dwells in memory so ardently, you are, in fact, disappointing.

We are all guilty of indulging in self-righteous beliefs.

It could be a gift in the form of souvenirs of this person occupying your active thoughts. However, it is illusory because closeness to others is a closeness to our most acceptable version of ourselves.

You know what you think besides yourself- When you have allegedly given to be alone and go unanswered. "