The Round Trip

The Round Trip is a departure from what I usually paint, again, I forget exactly when it was painted but 2005-2006 sounds about right, I know the charcter in the top left was inspired by a minature painting that I entered into a competition back in London Ontario. When I posted "Ga Ga Science Fair" in Febuary of 2012, I talked about wanting to improve the narrative of my work, and in retrospect that hope did not really develop in 2012...  but seeing this painting reminds me that narrative is something I was interested in awhile back, in this work an almost comic book or graphic novel approach was taken with action panels.

In case you can't read it (click to zoom) it says starting from top left going across: 1. "I saw her inspiration yesterday" 2. "But, where was she going?" 3. "She was not alone anymore." 4. "Escape!" 5. "Nothing to fear." 6. "A journey across the river to a car, she presses on fearlessly, rewarded and confident, making no assumptions or judgements, we are stronger now."

To be honest I have no clue what it all means, no wait... I know what it means but I'm not going to tell you ;) . I did use an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired camera angle on panel 3 on purpose to give the sense of the wolfs chasing the car. Hopefully I can figure out how to make this technique work, and still produce a viable piece of artwork in the traditional sense, since my goal right now isn't to produce obtuse comicbooks.

7x11" cold press... 2005-2006?