Would You Like a Drink of Water?

This is a new drawing I'm working on. It's hard to get a good shot of it. This top shot is a close up. There are longer shots of it below, but they turned out very dark.

It is called: "Would you like a drink of water?" "No thanks, I think I'll just rest for a little while."

What is it about?

Well, I was thinking about the inevitability of death and our futile attempts to hang on to life at all costs. The nurse's shirt/smock needs to have some wacky images all over it, and I'm thinking of making little stamp pad images to put on it. I'm trying to decide what icons to make, because I think they might overwhelm the larger image if they are too powerful of symbols or they could tend to trivialize it further if they are too stupid or inane.

I think I've decided to make the shapes on the nurse's smock hearts. Maybe a little on the trivial side, but If I do it right it might not be too disgustingly stupid. I want to represent the role love plays in our lives and deaths. The redemptive role of love, and the hope it brings, and the joy it brings, but it doesn't necessarily change the physical realm...

So the shape in the bed represents death and the side of the pillow is a vulva and represents birth.

The little "control/call" thing is an homage to the scream. I thought as I was making it that it started looking that way and it made me laugh so I thought I'd go with it... It was originally just a button on a wire, but now they have the TV controls built into them and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to comment on how TV kills us from the head down.

I went a little further on the coloring this morning, so maybe I'll have an updated image next week. I hope to finish this soon. The outer edges will be much darker and the "pain chart" on the wall will have a scale and the phases of the moon under it. I'm not sure what will be on the plate at this point. I'm thinking it should be untouched food. But that may change. I want some more symbolic imagery and I thought the food might be a good vehicle for that.

This is a lot of momento morte stuff about my mom's frequent stays in the hospital and finally the hospice stay too. So I'm not sure how this thing will evolve. It didn't start that way, but that's the direction it is headed.

Stay tuned.

me





































http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLLPIQGkC80&feature=related