The Beginning of The Painting That Needed to be Made....

Many decades ago, my father had entered a seminary to begin the process of becoming a priest. He claims that he had recurring dreams about "the children who wanted to be born", and that was what ultimately caused him to leave the seminary and embark on the search for my mother.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a painting that was haunting me. I had an idea, then I dismissed it, because 1.) I can't afford to do a "major" painting right now, and 2.) The idea is a complete departure from what I have been making and what my concerns are. I have lots of ideas that I put down in my sketchbooks, and I can usually let the idea sit for a couple of days... if I am still thinking about it a few days later, it might be worth developing. I was certain that this idea was just a fleeting thought, but the more I pushed it down, and came up with reasons why I couldn't do it, the more it pushed its way into my consciousness. I even went out and started taking some photos for it, printed them out, then changed my mind and put them away. This process happened 2 or 3 times before I surrendered.

So I have ordered the large roll of linen, taped the tracing paper on the wall for the cartoon, and started sketching. Here is the first cartoon sketch for the piece.

These are tiny figures that will sit in the bottom portion of the canvas. The bottom quarter of the canvas represents Wal-M*rt, one of the places where the consumer/celebrity worship cycle begins.