[Rick Mullin]

[Rick Mullin]

Oil on canvas, 22" x 28"

[Sharon Passmore]

Ooh Rick, I love this one.

I love the nostalgic feel of it. The grey machinery makes a nice counterpoint to the mellow golden elements.

I love the variations in the textures of the brush (knife) strokes. The wood looks shiny, the wallpaper looks flat, the details look crisp. Nothing looks heavy from being at the mercy of the palette knife and it all flows together seamlessly.

Lovely!

[Janice D. Soderling]

Let me just say that I love it too. I love the symbolism, my interpretation. It all alludes to lies and truth, Pinocchio with the nose that grew, has only one foot, and therefore halts, limps, like truth.

The patched apple, patched truth/knowledge. A wooden apple/nickel/fake, don't take any wooden apples. The three graces or cancan dancers, and where lies the difference?

The projector and the typewriter, nuff said. A can pertaining to be original—original truth, canned truths? That's what it says to me.

Rick is an artist to reckon with.

[Rick Mullin]

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

[Marcia Karp]

I think the picture is amazing. I hope you'll have a show in Boston so I can it in all its glory.

Marcia