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Conflict No.1copyright ©1999 Patrick Holloran All Rights Reserved 30" x 40" Acrylic on Canvas previous | thumbnails | next |
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Maybe you've noticed. Life is full of conflicts. As soon as you resolve one, another pops up to take its place. They are not always large conflicts. Some may take only a few minutes to resolve. Others may take..........years.
As you may have guessed, this is another of my abstract surreal paintings. There seems to be a higher number of recognizable elements in this painting compared to my previous abstract paintings. First, we have this creature. 
With gunk spewing from its mouth, it appears to be fighting a conflict just within itself. A smaller creature, with a star-like shape, got a little too close, being in the wrong place at the wrong time and is enduring the wrath of the larger creature. The upper eye of the larger creature is watching the reclining nude who is nearby, enclosed in a circle. 
The upper left corner of the painting contains the most pronounced examples of conflict. Two guys are riding piggyback on top of two other guys. They are wearing some sort of blue uniform. There is a pair of scissors attached to the guy on the bottom of the couple on the left. The scissors are attached with rods that connect to his hands and feet. The scissors are beginning to take a bite on the rider. It's not clear if the scissors are controlling the bottom guy or if the bottom guy is controlling the scissors. Either way has an entirely different interpretation. The rider to the right looks back, probably in a state of panic. Giddyap!!! But his "horse" seems to have already lost a leg to the dreaded scissors. There is also a second severed leg on the floor. Those darn scissors are sharp! Look who is peeking around the wall, watching all of this. It's our creature friend, in a rare moment of non-spewing. 
There is a bird's head that is cutting through the gunk spewing from the creature, and is taunting something to the lower left. 
Its tongue and upper beak are touching the Heads Up Display of a fighter jet. Another symbol of conflict. Also in the painting are ways in which people deal with the conflicts of life when they prove to be too overpowering. Some run away from the conflicts in an attempt to escape, as expressed by the figures leaping and falling from the top, center of the painting. 
Then there are the more peaceful solutions, exhibited by the guy in the lower right of the painting. He has found his refuge from all of life's conflicts. At least until the park ranger happens by to fine him for peeing in the lake. 
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