Bad Seed

Andie Thompson

Acrylic on Canvas; the photograph does not capture the iridescent paint also used (hair, white spots in flower trellis & some of the vines/veins)

NFS
2D Medium: Acrylic
Dimensions: 20 l x 16 w x 1 h
Weight: 1 pounds

I tried painting for the first time 10 years ago at one of those “BYOB & paint” studios but never took it any further until 4 years ago.

I didn’t have a clear path or image in mind when I began “Bad Seed” only that I wanted to capture the pain associated with my adoption. The title comes from the phrase my Adoptive Mother would screech at me when I misbehaved; “You’re a bad seed and I don’t know where you came from.”

The figure has no face for two reasons:

It symbolizes the erroneous belief that [some people hold] when a baby is adopted they are a blank slate to be molded into who or whatever the adoptive parents want them to be AND it illustrates how many adoptees of private adoptions don’t recognize the person they see in the mirror looking back at them.

Vines/Veins & Thorns: The physical, emotional, & psychological trauma sustained in my childhood; the primal wound that never heals.

Blood cascading down the garment: The realization that my adoption was transactional & I was strictly a commodity when I asked “Why did you adopt me?,” and my adopted mother flatly replied, “So our [biological] daughter wouldn’t be alone when we die.”