Confection - all done!

Here is the final painting called 'Confection'. It is one of the new pieces I created for the upcoming Toronto Outdoor Art Fair.

 

Easter passed not too long ago and while some people think of colorful eggs, chocolate bunnies, or a revived holy figure, the primary connotation in my mind is always Easter Island (Rapa Nui). It is a mysterious place and among the list of places I would love to visit before I die. I think what attracts me there is Easter Island is an environmental parable on a small scale. While the island's statues are heavily admired today, it's counterbalanced by its sordid past. An obsession was built upon making large statues, called Moai (the exact number still unknown - somewhere between 900-1000 - and the exact reason still unknown) which removed natural resources from the island at a rate exceeding it's replenishment.  I also wonder what it would feel like to exist on one of the most remote places on the planet - over 2000 miles to the next nearest landmass.  The original descendants of Rap Nui continued production on the Moai uninterrupted for 1000 years prior to contact from the modern world (the island was 'discovered' by Europeans in 1722, on Easter day - hence, the name).

The word confection means:

-a sweet preparation of fruit or the like, as a preserve or candy. 

-the process of compounding, preparing, or making something.

-something, as a garment or decorative object, that is very delicate, elaborate, or luxurious and usually nonutilitarian

When I was a child, I saw the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Or, saw some of the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. To this day, I've never seen the full movie. The movie is decidedly dark. What I did see when I was a child terrified me - children being sucked into machinery and being physically deformed. How could the production of candy be so perilous? 

In the painting Confection, an Oompa Loompa islander looks onward to what has been the fruit of his labor, creating large chocolate Easter bunny statues. Perhaps to worship some lagomorphic deity. 

                                                               (Did you spot the UFO?)