The Werewolf

I painted this...and a hundred other paintings which I painted over and over on the same canvases in my efforts to understand painting and my relationship with the art. It is a long process for me and I somehow thought that by painting and painting that I would come up with a shortcut, but for me there is none. That being said I have learned a great deal about something or other along the way as you cannot really help that if you are in the least bit interested.....

I am interested in things that have something to say. The great (and not so great) painters in all traditions throughout the ages have used stories and allegories as their subject matter which of course reflected the interests of their patrons...but the artists personal takes on those themes brought something more to their works than a simple visual technically mastered representation.

I am also interested in things that are implied. Harold Bloom in 'The Art of Reading Poetry' (2004) starts:

"POETRY essentially is figurative language, concentrated so that its form is both expressive and evocative. Figuration is a departure from the literal, and the form of a great poem itself can be a trope ("turning") or figure."

All this to say that I know this painting is ugly. That beings said there is something beautiful about it as well. I painted this piece for the Richard Brautigan poem "A Boat".

O beautiful
was the werewolf  
in his evil forest.  
We took him
to the carnival  
and he started  
   crying
when he saw
the Ferris wheel.  
Electric
green and red tears  
flowed down
his furry cheeks.  
He looked
like a boat
out on the dark  
water.

Richard Brautigan, “A Boat” from The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.