Forward and Backward

This painting started as a class assignment for the advanced painting class I took at U.W. Parkside. The assignment was to put together a still life in a shoe box and paint it in acrylic. I took the assignment further.

First, I chose elements that come together and symbolize where I was in my life at that time. I had started my adult life, but had been influenced strongly by the things that captivated me as a kid and a teenager. They were the foundation of who I was becoming. All of it centers around the obviously symbolic image of Arthur Clarke’s “Childhood’s End.” The title of this piece simply refers to how I am looking back at my past and looking toward the future at the same time.

I also chose to go beyond the assignment by setting the shoe box at an angle to reveal a landscape from the end of the novel. I didn’t like the limitation of the space inside the box and felt I had to break the concept out of it. So the box sits on the desert landscape during the end of the world as mankind evolves into a new type of being. Inside the box the elements circle around the book and lead your eye from one element to the other. Strong diagonals draw you into that vortex, but also send you off into the landscape. The spider’s web brings you back into the vortex in the box.

This painting also marks the first where I learned to glaze with acrylics in a manner a lot like an oil painting. I loved the result and have continued to mostly work this way since.