Cocktail Hour

In my art, I explore the absurdity of humanity. By imagining exaggerated features—such as enormous ears—and incorporating symbolic elements like animal skulls, I invite viewers to reflect on our collective folly. These surreal components serve as a whimsical mirror, highlighting our societal and environmental transgressions. Through a visual narrative that balances humor and gravity, I aim to inspire introspection and a shift, however small, in how we perceive and navigate our fragile world.

This painting draws on memories of my typical middle-class childhood in the 1960s.

Here, the stylish parents—elegant in their carelessness—recline in mid-century modern chairs, enjoying their ever-ubiquitous cocktails. I chose a palette of burnt oranges, nicotine yellows, and coral pinks—colors that feel, to me, both nostalgic and sickly sweet.

The oversized, cartoonish ears represent the absurdity we, as children of that era, often saw in our parents and their world. The child’s own ears—comically exaggerated, pink, and delicate—stand alert, listening for a word that never comes.

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