Unleaded
2008 - 20"x16" Acrylic, colored pencil, pencil, newspaper, on canvas.
Finished with two coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish #1312
(Private Collection - New York)

March 2008

The meaning behind the painting is still not real clear to me, but here's my best guess.

The news stories about lead poisoning from toys made in China was the initial inspiration. You will see a "Pb" symbol inside the red portion of the mountain. This is the symbol for lead on the periodic table. While lead poisoning is a grim topic, the title "Unleaded" represents an optomistic view for the future, since progress is being made towards lead free products.

Seeing the snake as a symbol of poison or evil is clear, but the chameleon could go either way. I originally thought chameleon represented good, but in retrospect I think the chameleon is an evil character as well. As for the meaning of the dualing snake and chameleon, it's open to interpretation.

Above the red portion of the mountain is a giraffe and a large pile of poop (3rd photo down). The giraffe is wondering what kind of animal could make such a large pile of poop. To the right of the poop are two small animals called Dik-diks (tiny deer). I first learned about them from a guest on the Jay Leno Show. One of their characteristics is they always poop in the same place. The Dik-diks were just some unrelated, random inspiration that ended up in the painting.

There was a lot of trial and error with the color, especially the sun. The sun was several different colors (black, white, blue, yellow, green, orange, red) before ending with the violet-pink color.

The canvas for this painting came from an art store in Manhattan that was going out of business. It orginally had a terrible pixelated print on it. I decided it would be more interesting to cover it up with newspaper collage rather than gesso. The newspaper was from the Brooklyn Rail.

Here are a few pictures of the painting in development.

Close Up photos: