Finally completed after 3 months on the easel, give a warm welcome to Set In Stone. As part of my Cravings series exploring food obsession, Set in Stone features returning characters Pink Pear and the Jelly Doughnuts. While I Only See You focused on the exclusive relationship between Pink Pear and Jelly Doughnut, this painting also features an art history guest appearance by the OG stone cold mama of the paleo world, the Venus of Willendorf, reigning atop her divan of doughnuts.
Following on Containing Desire (above), which addressed the futility of trying to contain the seductive influence of our favourite foods, I introduced the idea of the deep biological or evolutionary basis for that power. Since the reason for the dilemma is really nothing to do with the food itself, but to do with our own biological safeguards from starvation, no mountain of contemporary rationalization will depose the reign of our cravings.
It’s often the ad libs that bring new discoveries and additions to my visual language. I truly loved painting the conversion of the stripes on the kitchen towel into veins of dripping jelly as first developed in Sisyphus Motivation (above). In Set In Stone I discovered I could morph of the piped cream on the doughnuts into regal purple clouds which surround our paleo-lithic golden goddess. Check out the progression video for how this painting evolved on the canvas: