Making Social Comment...

“Making social comment is an artificial place for an artist to start from. If an artist is touched by some social condition, what the artist creates will reflect that, but you can't force it.” (Susan Sontag)

Those of you who have visited my blog in the past are aware that my wife, our closest friends, Colin and Susan, and myself had an exciting trip to China three years ago. I came back with a strong need to express what I had seen in a series of paintings. What I had seen was a dichotomy – the China that they wanted you to see and the China that exists when you get down to ground level. I have just finished the fourth in this series. I call it “One Child”. It retains the Chinese red band that I use as a division between the two worlds but has an element breaking through the bar. The Great Wall of China, an intriguing tourist draw, was built to keep the Mongols out. In this instance it represents to me the efforts of the Chinese government to keep their record of human rights abuses in. I feel their strict rule of one child per family, with the consequences of lost rights, is unduly harsh.

I will continue to paint my way through this series until I get it out of my system, at which time I hope to exhibit them as a group. In my mind there will be another 4 or 5. Keep watching!

China Series - One Child (24" x 24")