Variations on a Fairground
Oil on canvas
45" x 39"
2008

This huge painting is my current piece de resistance, and probably remains among the most challenging with which to engage. I wanted to create a ‘surreal fairground’ in which all of the rides, attractions and relevant ostentations were distorted to varying degrees so that their metallic artificiality was diluted by organic modifications such as corporeal appendages. Despite the simplicity of my intention, the results of such juxtapositions are not always blatant. For instance, there is a clear link between the rollercoaster on the painting’s bottom left corner and the diseased being below it, yet few see that the rollercoaster’s descents and ascents resemble those on a heart beat monitor’s screen.