Dreamer, 2009

oil on canvas (57.5" x 57.5")

A figure floats in mid-air with a rope attached to his left leg.  The rope is the same type depicted in Temptation, 2008.  This rope was commonly used in lynching of African Americans during slavery and even after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was made active on January 1, 1863.  In fact, such murders continued for even 100 additional years. In contrast, the rope in the painting is symbolic of freedom whereas the subject uses the rope volitionally in order to be able to return to the natural.  In Dreamer the subject (intended to be the artist but was modeled after a photograph of model, Zeric) is a self-narrative and depicts a daydream state like that of the Apostle John in the book of Revelations (KJV) when he states that he was in a state called in Koine Greek as ([en pneumati] or “in the Spirit”).  This would be a change of locations so spiritual that it is likewise, physical.  The rope represents a means to pull the dreamer back to reality.  This can also be seen as negative in the idea that when you rise to the top there is always someone there who wants to pull you down.

Figures in this series appear in white underwear (a most comfortable human state of undress) to represent the freedom associated with being in such a state as en pneumati. There was no intention on the part of the artist to create the subjects as objects of desire.  This is also in keeping with similar garments upon Jesus at the Crucifixion.   Any opinion otherwise lies in the psychological composition and heart of the viewer.