Title: Expulsion
Medium: Copper metal
leaf with wax and oil on canvas
Size: 38" wide x 50
tall
Year: 1992
Image Inspiration:
This image is my version of the
Early-Renaissance artist Masaccio's altar piece, The Expulsion from the Garden.
You can see a photo of the original art at the Wikipedia page
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expulsion_from_the_Garden_of_Eden_(Masaccio)
As you can see from the date on this piece,
I've been working with metallic layers for quite a while. Other
images from this particular series have sold. When I look back
at this piece in the context of my current work, I see that I
was unconsciously beginning what would become my Hispanic
Heritage series. At the time I painted it, I would have said
that it was purely an exploration of religious inconography.
With time, distance and maturity I realize that it was
something else.
We all carry an Eden in our lives. It may
be your family, relationship to friends or your relationship
with a place or a time, or a world view. The nature of being
human is that at some point we will lose at least one Eden and
probably more. Death, rejection, change, loss of innocence;
these things expel us from are our Edens. I painted this image
at a point in my life where I became aware that I had
completely lost an Eden. The shine and depth of metallic finish
in three-quarters of the image represent those beauties that
are Eden. Adam and Eve's positioning on the bottom right of the
frame in an aura of darkness reinforces the experience of their
loss and their exit from this place of beauty.
