“Thirst”

2023. Acrylic paint, black gesso, paint marker, red stitching, beetroot powder and turmeric on mixed media paper. 19” x 21”

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Drawing inspiration from a previous piece of mine “watermelon paradox” along with some other smaller works I’d been doing at the time, I early on approached this piece centering on ideas of desirability. The phallic symbol, or Black dick as it were, is painted profiled beside a partially gold leafed, midnight blue structure, similar to mirror or even a window and looming over the two, is gangly, sparsely toothed smile salivating over the phallus. A nod not only to the literal desire of sex and penetration, but also the sort of status that we put over penis size in a way that it becomes the personality of a person or at least a major associated trait marking higher status, presenting itself as a window, doorway or gateway to access.