TO WHAT END.

Medium Description

Watercolor on paper.

Artist Description

TO WHAT END., is a simple protest of war.  If you are asking which war, that is entirely the point.

Everyday, we learn of horrific acts of violence and destruction put upon nations and their people.  For all of our advancements, morality and reason would seem to provide alternative ways of resolving conflict, yet war and its devastation prevails.  Like many before me, I regrettably wonder if this is an immutable nature of man. I wonder TO WHAT END without expecting an answer.

In this painting, my choice of a female muse was deliberate.  Besides the obvious difference of men and women’s tendency toward aggression, I used her to create a sharp contrast between her soft gentle beauty and the twisted tangled metal.  The tension between the two, soft and hard, reflects my own emotional tension as I read or listen to the daily news.  The reference for the metal overlay is from a photo I took of a mangled firetruck destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attack.  While destruction encompasses the majority of the space in this painting, there is a glimmer of hope, however fleeting, represented by the butterfly.  The expression on the woman’s face is intentionally ambiguous with a suggestion of cynicism, disgust and resignation.