Original artwork description:

In this painting of spontaneously applied smatterings and slashes of impasto oil pigment clumps, dual reclining figures can be comprehended moving left or right across the picture plane, depending on the viewer's vantage point and overall impression of the scene. Most obvious, and calling for our attention is what appears to be a left-looking human profile approaching the left edge of the canvas, eye shielded and mouth agape in an expression of timid ascertainment, the white torso trailing and appendage raised in a beckoning gesture of familiarity as if to be saying, "Here I am, look at me!" A comical undertone begins to dawn, and continues to gather force as in an alternative reading to this scenario (or in tandem, depending on your preference), the raised slash of white paint becomes not a waving hand, but the dominant half of the tail of a fish, gamely paddling the connected body to it's right across center and toward the right or opposite edge, this time, of the canvas. An upturned head, and a raised appendage of it's own, seem to say in an attitude of sporting competition with the initial reading, "No, look at me - I'm what this painting is about!"

Whether the movement is to the left or to the right, movement there no doubt is, and the red rolling cords of paint left bobbing in the lower left of the picture plane allude to moving water (and the life therein), thereby giving environmental context to this visual scenario. The title, in a tongue-in-cheek nod of solidarity with the counter interpretative nature of the visual effects, is a comically intended reversal on the phrase "Fish Photo." Armed with that knowledge, the watchful eye and gaping mouth expression of the painting's initially described human visage now takes on renewed import in it's tuned-in, judgmental essence: that of miming our collective viewers' reaction to this less-than-stellar pun - the collective groan.

Influences, among others, include Max Beckmann, Edvard Munch, Bob Thompson, George McNeil, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Francesco Clemente, R.B. Kitaj and Willem de Kooning.

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Materials used:

Oil paint, gesso, and charcoal

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