Zebra Egg

Compositionally, there’s a few themes I seem to revisit over and over. Giant Surreal Thingy growing out the landscape, and small mammal observing it, is one of ’em.

The mammal, at least, I sort of understand–I can connect to a painting a lot better if there’s a living thing in there to identify with. Even if it’s a naked mole rat or a tapir, it sort of stands in for the viewer.

The giant objects, though…yeah, no clue. I should have been working on a completely different painting for a friend who keeps zebra finches, but that made me think of zebra finch eggs, and zebra striped eggs, and from there it just kinda went huge and blue.

This is a less complicated scene than the giant bleeding turnips, despite attempts to the contrary. I tried putting more eggs in, and it just didn’t work at all. The egg wants to be solitary. Perhaps zebra eggs are fiercely territorial, one egg to a beach, no intruders. I don’t know. Like the tapir, I’m a stranger on this particular shore, and I can only gaze up at the monolithic blue eggshell and go “Dude. That’s bizarre.”

13 x 19 Jumbo Print, edition of 25