Thanks folks,
Two critiques coming from different directions!
Sharon, I'm glad you like how the colors are harmonizing. This was done entirely with brushes, other than the three dancers in the picture on the keyboard.
Janice, I really appreciate your reading of the picture. When I paint still life, I grab things from my cabinet in the basement and put them on the table and move them around, adding and removing items. I don't think at all about a narrative interpretation at this point. But the nature of still life painting is that the subjective/objective emerges into something open to interpretation. This is especially the case if there are humanoid elements and language. A character such as Pinocchio brings his own story to bear. I have to say things totally unintended were occurring to me as I painted this and I found myself laughing several times as I worked--a first! My interpretation was a bit more Freudian, and maybe I should have been crying. The question of "telling the truth" is likely going bear on any interpretation here. My thoughts also ran to the idea of being tricked into adulthood and its effect on nascent sexuality in the male of the species. All that said, I have no preferred interpretation. I am most interested in what others come up with, as far as reading the picture is concerned. I never have a narrative read of a painting that I think is any good, and this one passes that test. I think it has had the effect of amusing me with a darkness that brings me up short once I actually start laughing. I therefore would rather keep it all as nebulous as possible!
Thanks folks. I am trying to get to the studio more often. Still working on Darwin (sonnets from The Voyage of the Beagle--my commute from the city, which started in July, gives me time to write and the project gives me a lot to work with!)
Rick
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