This week we are going way back, into high school. You can definitely see the Salvador Dali influence here, with the floating blue and red orbs and the lightning-figure on the horizon. If you look closely enough, you’ll see that I hid a menacing eye in the clouds.
The Angel of Loneliness, 1997. Oil on canvasboard, 16 x 20 inches.
I was eighteen when I painted this. I think this is my first oil painting. I’m not sure. If I were to do it again now I would probably do it large, preparing lots of studies with a model for the angel and paint it really large. No doubt there would be lots of hidden references in it. Just for fun.
Of course this was probably a good psychological representation of me at the time: high school was a lonely time (now I realize it is for pretty much everybody, even the popular kids) but I was a little bit pretentious and not as sophisticated as I thought I was. I believed I was special because I knew who Dali was, and thought I was clever for hiding that eye in the clouds. I think I was scared of what would happen after high school. And yet — there is a glimpse of hope in that sunbeam.