Complicated Shadows is a painting that examines this principle, where morality is questioned as a possible prison unto itself.
 

Complicated Shadows

“Virtue, however beautiful, becomes the worst of all attributes when it is found too weak to contend with Vice, and that, in an entirely corrupted age, the safest course is to follow along after the others.”

(Marquis de Sade)

Complicated Shadows is a painting that examines this principle, where morality is questioned as a possible prison unto itself. The Satyr symbolizes temptation and the guilty pleasures of sin, as a bizarre fetus lays in her womb and is the fruit of wrongful indulgence. The mother and child image symbolizes love and nurturing, while the scapegoat off in the distance is a token attempt at salvaging that which has long since run afoul. Here Vice challenges Virtue, forcing Virtue to adopt Vice to prevail in a complicated balance of competing forces. This painting was part of a series of experimental works in which I merged photographic work with traditional oil painting.

  • Oil on canvas

  • 44”x60”

  • (2006)

Exhibited at M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs, CA (2006); exhibited and sold at Micheal Berger Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA (2010).