I painted this back in 1973. I was looking at a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion and had this image of a face. The broiling clouds were like the sulci and gyri of the cerebral hemispheres. The rising shaft of dust formed the nose and the flame and dust of the ground blast was like lips.
All I had to do was add the eyes.
The face of oblivion!
This was a painting that I did in the early 1970s. I called it work. At the time I was doing so research on day release and working as a laboratory technician. It was very boring.
I saw work as a prostitution. I sold my body and time in exchange for money which paid for the rent, food and clothes.
I’ve always been hard working. I don’t mind work. It is merely that there are so many other creative, social or enjoyable things that I could be doing. I don’t have enough time to fit all my life in!
I imagined myself in a prison, in a cloud looking out at life with all its possibilities.