Well, here we are. The year 2020. Stuck in quarantine with everywhere to be and nowhere to go. 2019 blew by in a blink of an eye. I didn’t do much painting, focusing more intensively on circus arts. Here is one of the paintings I did, called “The Reckoning”:

My inspiration, if it can be called that, was a horrific story, non-fiction unfortunately, about the kidnapping and torture of a Venezuelan woman. The degree of sadistic misogyny that continues to persist in the world today is truly staggering. So, I created this creature, woman, bird, beast, who is now waiting, silently and patiently, for the arrival of all the abominations who currently walk the earth and call themselves human. She will deal with them appropriately. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

The other random thing I did was add gold leaf to my Edgar Allen Poe book. It was trickier to do than I expected, but I was trying to get really thin lines out of the leaf, so I think that was part of the issue. That link leads to my non-circus Instagram page, which I will undoubtedly continue to update more regularly than this blog…

I’m working on a number of small projects at the moment, in addition to this larger painting;

I started it earlier this year and then left it sitting because I wasn’t sure what to paint aside from the octopus. When we were sent into quarantine, I was inspire to add the human figure and the eyes. Social anxiety has been hitting me pretty hard these days, especially now that I’m isolated and have to rely on social media to interact. So, I think that’s what this painting is about… how your mental state can feel like a slimy, oppressive cloud, animate with the regard of strangers and friends alike. No offence meant to the noble octopus!