So I completed a new painting that is both old and new. The two panels on the left are 6.5 x 10” each. They were painted in 2020 during the thick of the pandemic. My family and I were stuck in our little NYC apartment back then, and at that time, it felt as though time had no meaning. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. I would bring my daughter down to the basement to watch Yellow Submarine on DVD and try to escape the boredom… sort of. During the When I’m Sixty Four part of the film the animation counts down (or maybe up?) to 64 (it’s around the 2:00 mark), so these two paintings were taken directly from that sequence. It was just something I wanted to paint at that time; I don’t know why. I just enjoyed the process.
The painting on the right (14.75 x 11.75”) was built in 2023, but I didn’t paint it until November of 2024. I already knew what I wanted the image to look like, but it took a while to paint it because of various obligations. Plus… to be honest, if I make a painting or not, I recognize that the world will continue to rotate regardless. Life goes on, and my proponents are few and far between, so… is there really a rush?
Anyway… I knew that the 24 and 25 needed a companion piece—something to bring it all together. This is what I came up with. Inspired by magic, hypnosis, spontaneity, and circus arts, it makes me think of going to work 5 days a week, plus parenting that never ends! … at least from my perspective.
But it’s late, I’m going to bed.