"Saturday Cartoons/Sunday Comics" (2025) Oil on canvas. 54"x72"
 
This painting is inspired by the desire to escape into nostalgia and away from the realities of everyday life. A figure is seated at the table reading the Sunday funny pages (the Peanuts comic asks "But is it art?"). This female figure is in a home/kitchen space, wearing a button up with nautical stars, basketball shorts, and cartoony hot-pink bunny slippers. There is a window next to the figure's head, and outside it is dark and stormy with a crow sitting on the window. A wooden table has a snake and apple tree carvings. On the table there is a coffee mug and a modern tea-kettle. There is a Chinese vase with a tulip standing perfectly upright. "American Gothic" hangs on the 70s, vagina-like pink wallpaper. A black, cartoon cat rubs against the chair, pausing while playing with it's toy mouse. The left side of the painting contains a black screen (digital and spatial) with blurry memories of cartoons I watched as a kid: Spongebob, Dragonball Z, Sonic X, Sonic Underground, Danny Phantom, and Justice League. 
 
This painting relies heavily on symbolism, some more niche than others. This painting is concerned with the "real" vs "unreal". Painting is a highly constructed medium; everything in it is fake or at least an illusion or imitation. Yet people often confuse paintings (especially portraits) for real, or find some truth in a painting and that truth feels real. This tension is important for me to explore across my entire practice. 
 
On demand prints are available for this piece.