This painting is about how complicated life is. We are often caught in a confusing web of distractions and diversions. Life is a puzzle. This painting is about the search for meaning in our lives and the question “why”.
This painting plays with perspective, shadows and layers. There are circular swirls that feel like they are moving. Various items have different distances between each other. This forces the eye to keep searching and probing for something in the painting. What is the meaning, where and when are things happening?
If you look very carefully you can see that there are two people in the background. They are looking through a mesh-like web filled with different objects and barriers.
This artwork refers to the many positive and negative things that occur in our lives. We experience a world of butterflies, honeybees, stinging mosquitoes and ordinary flies. We are exposed to some bitter fruits and some that are not.
Some objects in the painting do not have much specific meaning. They were included to indicate that we cannot always understand life. Life often remains unclear even as we search and try to answer its questions. In reality, life itself eventually answers many of our questions. Everything happens in its own good time and things become clear.
This painting was extremely tedious to make and took a really long time. I planned it very well in advance. The picture was clear in my mind even before I put the brush on the canvas. I had made a list with everything I wanted to put in the painting. Whether it was a honeycomb, net, fish, eggs, shells, stars, books, moon, leaves, and weird kind of swirls and sponge like shapes. This painting was made with airbrush and acrylic brush work, the shadows were made using airbrush techniques.
My mother, who is a tapestry weaver, really liked this painting. She made a beautiful tapestry based on it that is just the same size as the original. It is included here.