Original artwork description:

This painting is a study of La Pieta by Michelangelo through the Syria conflict which was beginning back in 2013. The painting was begun in 2013 and worked on again in 2015.

Originally this image was made up with many images layered on top of one another, compacting the space with stuff - commercial images, products, movie icons, famous people etc... interfering, obscuring, hiding, compacting space, squeezing, going against nature's natural action to fill a vacuum. The concept explores the increasing overload of stuff - images and information fill servers today, consuming more and more of our energy, - yet these images fill our mind-space, easily distracting us from important issues.
On top I overlay a Nurse, universal symbol of caring, my Madonna of the 21st Century, sitting on a park bench. She seeks a chance to breathe, searching a way out from the darkness that slowly consumes. The body of a Syrian held in her arms, presented to the world as a symbol - the continue struggle for life and peace through 'misguided' conflicts born from Religion and not reason. Like the symbol of the Christos we do not know if they are alive or passed - caught between worlds in a tension of uncertainty.
The first Dr Who (William Hartnell) looks over unable to solve this issue, no matter how much this grandfather of time and space would like to: it is a fixed point in time. Yet the Doctor is a symbol to educate and teach children another way of seeing the world. A chance to reverse learned behaviour and projected thoughts - a future generation might learn something and help reshape their reality towards a better Earth, resurrecting the understanding that a precious life and a precious being has a human right to live a life free from the misguided principles of those who think they know better.

Materials used:

Oil Painting on Canvas

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