Portrait with Fire Chief

Like many of my paintings, I worked on this one over several months and then returned to it after a year, reworking it even after I had believed it was finished. The changes involved adding a cascade of flowers over the reclining nude male figure in the foreground and surrounding him with bunnies. He came to me then as a “Fire Chief” inert in the grass at the heroine’s feet: an anonymous nude male body, his obvious masculinity counterbalanced by the vulnerable posture of his frivolous nap, while she wields a commanding brush and looks directly at the viewer, even while weighted down by an entire garden in her dress.

In my paintings, I often hope to strike a note of humor with the viewer, sometimes with an ulterior motive. If I can engage the viewer in the comedy, or at least charm them with it, perhaps the deeper intimations I am exploring in my work will be subliminally received.