Make Belief

122 x 106 cms  1996

Gift

In common with a great many artists, I decided to enter a competition. This was for the Blake Prize for religious 'art'. So, this painting is entirely contrary to my statement that "there are no obscure alternative `meanings’, each object represents only itself, and the temptations to use surrealism, obscure symbols or portentous images are avoided". This is just crammed full of portentous images.

It began from a magazine photo of a child wearing an angel costume, and her statement that, 'dressed as an angel, she could be good, like an angel.'  I found this concept utterly terrifying.

So, we have the mother, dressed in New Age things, posing 'like a' Byzantine Christ. The image is, in fact,  superimposed on the exact proportions of a Byzantine mosaic. She stands above a backyard pool, symbolising immersion and baptism, but the guarding dogs (taken from earlier Egyptian mythology) are slinking away, while the backyard chook crows, and the children play dress-ups with cardboard haloes and a doll. The whole thing is slit in two, revealing the abyss of ignorance, firmly stitched together, while a flimsy gilt Christmas angel watches over it all.

But it wasn't hung.

**There are more notes on the ripped canvas on the Compare Use of Ripped Canvas Page and more notes on the dogs on the Compare Use of Dog Page.