Lab Book #2: C451 The Bomb

Over the holiday I dug through my pile of old paintings and found a few that fit in the doodleism style. In this example, the composition was based on lecture-note doodles from my chemistry 451 course. Left-middle you see a bomb coming down on a ballerina who seems to welcome it. In the top middle is a character locked in a cage. Again, the theme of insecurity, failure, and being trapped comes through in the work. Did I really feel this way? At the time (4th year university) things were going pretty good so it is unfair to say I really felt these things. But I guess sitting in a boring chem lecture does invoke some depression.... In retrospect I decided to include this in the lab book series. Originally I planned to create new paintings for Lab book 1-3, but the discovery of these paintings seems to provide a logical fit. I will assign two more paintings to the lab book series (including , 'Caged Mind' which I posted last month, and 'Chem 453 Free the Monkey', which I will post shortly). The decision to put them in the series was primarily because they were done before the core Lab book paintings (which began with #4), and also fit well with the development of the overall design themes and evolving concepts of the entire series. In particular, the designs of the Lab book paintings begin with more 2-dimensional compositions and evolve into more 3-dimensional illusions, and the themes evolve from feeling trapped and insecure, to feeling free and confident. 

Lab Book #2: C451 The Bomb, watercolour 15 x 11" cold press, 2003 (No. 1748a)