The Socratic Tree (final painting)

This is the final painting I created of my Socratic Tree idea. I elaborated on much of this idea in the pastel drawing that preceded this painting. I made a couple sketches and drawings in preparation for this magnum opus.

It really is a magnum opus because it is the second biggest oil painting I’ve made thus far in my career as an artist. It’s 183 cm X 152.5 cm (or 72″ X 60″), so it is quite a large painting. It’s been in a couple of shows here in Albuquerque, so it has been seen. It just hasn’t been seen enough yet.

I completed The Socratic Tree back in 2003 right when the Bush administration was invading Iraq with the crafting of its lies about WMDs, and with the power of America’s desire to get revenge for the supposed attacks by terrorists on 9/11. I don’t want to get too political here, but this painting was a political expression at the time because I had no vocabulary to express the dissent I felt with respect to Washington’s rapacious policies.

Simultaneously, I had been listening to Art Bell’s radio show late at night in my grandparents’ basement during the cold winters in Nebraska, and he would sometimes have guests on talking about ghosts, ghost hunting, and EVP recording. The guests would sometimes discuss how children ghosts were often the most haunting.

This got me to thinking about all the lost souls, including children, who had their lives cut short because of governmental psychoses, or other reasons. I wanted to give all the children of misfortune in the realms of limbo surrounding earth a voice. So, naturally, I decided that their voices could be expressed through a painting of dissent against war.

I incorporated a lot of different media into this painting, including: bathroom caulk, pieces of cardboard, toilet paper, staples, some old cloth from a gunnie sack for flour, chips of old oil paint, acrylic, and a little bit of spackle mixed in with the acrylic caulk.

The caulk composes the main trunk of the tree. I did this to create a relief effect, while not using loads of oil paint to compose the body. It worked pretty well, and I was able to paint oil paint over the caulk.