"Dinner Party" Oil on wood 17" x 19"

Sold to Kym Cutter, Oct. 2010 directly after completion.

This painting come about when I was listening to someone once gain tell me of all the ruthlessness that goes on in their family. I kept answering "JACKALS!!!". I was thinking about doing a painting on this, how people can be so vicious to each other as if fighting over meat. I like the stereo type of jackals, but I don't necessarily believe in projecting negative human traits onto animals. Besides, when I looked up jackals on google images, they had a sleek and graceful form that seemed to contradict the feeling that I wanted to paint. So I abandoned the jackal concept and just kept the feeling. This is what came out.

Yesterday I drove Bryan's truck to the junkyard and found the perfect piece of mining screen for the fire place project. I was so happy to see it, as I was really worried about the chances of them having the right one. It was a lot of fun. I had never actually been the one to drive on the welding errands and we stopped by Starbucks on the way. Also swung by Home Depot for a wire wheel and some spray paint. When I got home I cut up the mesh. It was clogged with gravel, which I would have left. It looked very cool and organic, but I know that the client wanted more of a minimal, sleek look, so I tapped each hole out with a hammer and a nail. It was quite an undertaking and took a few hours but after all-What's a few hours? Worked on the piece again today, but I felt worried about making noise because Bryan was sleeping and the neighbors were enjoying their Saturday back yard. I'm almost done with the piece and hope to finish it tomorrow. The noise is an issue that I would like to figure out. Maybe I can try to work inside. That could solve the whole thing. After all this is an art studio!

Tonight I watched "The Godfather" great movie.