This is Not a Toy, 2000. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 36 inches.
I painted this in 2000, a year after the tragic shooting in Littleton, Colorado. I heard about the Columbine High School massacre on my way back to the States from a semester in Europe.
I’ve never taken a strong position on gun control, and I still don’t. For me the situation underscored that guns are not toys, but to be respected. There’s a place for them, but when and where? I don’t really like guns per se, but I have enjoyed skeet shooting with my father-in-law and brother-in-law.
This painting is more about the bloody massacre committed by young people who were in that awkward space between childhood and adulthood, probably angry at the world about something. Aren’t we all angry about something at that age? (I know I was.) Unfortunately, these boys (I can call them that now that I’m a 30-something father, but at the time I was barely in my 20s) didn’t find a constructive outlet other than make explosives and plan how to kill everyone they knew.
It’s sad and kind of pathetic, really. Yet I suppose my job now is to educate my own children and help them find ways to constructively vent their frustrations.
