This painting is a representation of the suffering of Laurel Black, my former mother-in-law.
On December 6, 2018 she lost a son, Alexander Black, to a work-related accident. He was an arborist and tree pruner. While trying to cut branches, he fell from a tree.
I wanted to make his emotion shine through the canvas.
I wanted the viewers to feel his emotional conflict, to be disturbed by a sense of unease.
Chris Black, the brother of the deceased, deals with his grief by planting trees in a large park in his brother's honor. He plants Dawn Redwoods, which in this composition is the species that springs from Laurel and Alex's body. As if life could overcome death.
The rope around the neck expresses the need to end one's life. The clenched heart makes one's own blood gush out. This gesture expresses an emotional and physical torture, which is reminded by the gaping hole in the chest.
Laurel's face is painted twice. The lower portrait is resigned to suffering for the rest of her life. The portrait in the center is all about Alex. And the top face is Alex's portrait. On his face the light is coming from your left while it is coming from your right on the rest of the canvas. He is no longer in the same world as us.
