Here is a new small painting, it was done for a show in Philly (this december..i'll keep you posted). The theme for such show is La Petite Mort, the Small Death, the french metaphor for Orgasm. The ideas of love and death have always been associated and the all thing charmes me. I keep saying that I don't want to paint bloody, straight forward, cruent pictures anymore but I seem not to be able to, yet. I need to get over it though, I want to be more subtle, delicate and pretty. I am too simple minded I guess. I will switch to flowers soon.
I am not sure what to write, since this picture really appears easy on a reading level. There is the beautiful beheading, often used as a device to represent the abandonement of rationality and the embrace of instincs (think of how Klimt "beheaded" his women through golden elaborate necklaces; the art purpose needs no justification because there is no reason for it to exist but pleasure); a bed of teeth, as they recurr in psychology as an oniric symbol for the same concept. In italian we also say "via il dente via il dolore" (remove the tooth, remove the pain) and I thought it conformed to the idea of painful pleasure. The woman holds a book, meaning that all this speech about leaving rational interpretation apart fails anyway, because it is the very product of an intellectual formula anyways. The book represents a mantid (known for beheading her partner after copulation), a scapegoat (a hint of anti-religion, because anything concening sex calls for it), and some random nonsense, because all this words and pictures at the end go back to mean nothing.
Her tattoo says Post-Romantica, it's self explanatory.
Acrylic on wood, thats it.
