A few months ago I started thinking about death again. At the time I was listening to the stories people close to me told each other when they lose family and friends. Something dryly funny my father mentioned to me over the phone got me thinking. About the larger western culture and its mythologies around dying. As he told it, he was trying to discuss one of the stories that people are told in the larger Christian faith with his Episcopalian Minister. That is, if you behave, or even if you don’t but repent, you can go to a room in the sky, heaven, and meet God and all of your favorite old pals in a 56 billion light year universe. I guess the Minister didn’t really want to touch that.
But look, while that may be true, what do I know - I realized that I am more vegetal and earthbound, meaning, bound to the Earth. I like that our bodily remains become part of the organs of Earth, and She will do with us what She will. Also, nowadays death is largely kept hidden and sanitized in the safer areas of the world. So in that vein I was inspired to paint these two back-to-earth paintings, and place a figure in each one that may be in a process of decay, in a beautiful place of our choosing. That’s another story too, of course, but one I rather like.
earthbound, male figure, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 27” x 28”, 2023
earthbound #2, female figure, acrylic, oil pastel, pencil, and charcoal on canvas, 29” x 26.5, 2023