More Than the Sum

This was done for the library at my school. It was my attempt at trying to paint the way a good book makes us feel. The image I kept coming back to was wrapping your naked body up in a warm towel after you've stepped out of a shower, and you just feel so fucking new, you know? Like you've been re-written and all the better for it, and nothing can get past your awesomely warm towel. Or something like that. Just that warmth and knowingness that comes from having the greatest conversation you've ever had from someone long gone whom you've never met.

Becky is one of my dearest friends, and has the kind of smile you can't really gauge, which is exactly what I wanted. I just read "I and Thou" by Martin Buber, and he writes about looking into the eyes of a housecat... how you have no idea what they're thinking but you know that they are taking all of you - even the parts you hide from yourself - in into their gaze. That's how Becky's smile can be.

This is the biggest painting I've done so far, besides the mural I did last year. It's four feet by four feet stretched canvas. Acrylics with details in oil. The background has gold netting, canvas numbers I made and then painted (3, 5, and 9... so sharp and scary), an arm from an action figure, and a broken pair of glasses. I also used a lot of my spit to sort of get that thickened dark red look. It was late at night and I'm poor, don't judge. 

The blanket is a Tagalog translation of - of course - The Little Prince, as well as sand I took back from my favorite beach in the world, Boracay, and sea shells that were a huge bitch to adhere to the canvas.