I am usually a painter of happy things like flowers and trees and often a painter of intellectual things, such as the processes and imagery of science like my beloved neurons and other intriguing cells. But this week, I have wandered off on a side-road. I’ve taken a detour. I’ve climbed a mountain and I am looking down at the valley below. I enter the dark, deep.
The daily news feed projected into my life over the past year has forced my stroll down this darken pathway. I can no longer ignore the sounds and signs that speak to me. I can’t look away. The world it seems to me, is teeming with the creepy. The creepers are now in charge. Everywhere I look I see evil intent, jealousy, rage, greed, anger, bigotry and fear. I see men using their power for nothing more but to gather wealth and I see women subjugated into using their beauty as a shield, their intellect ignored. I see wars wanted and justice denied. I see people who deserve much better literally being treated worse. I see death in the eyes of the humans I encounter. I see sadness, confusion, misunderstanding and destruction lurking at every turn. I see monsters within us all.
I also see a booth in my future. I’m sharing a space with my good friend Chris of Skelletal Dropkick Ceramics at the Silicon Valley Comic Con. Our booth is a collaborative effort with ceramics and paint and we are calling it Monster Lab. I’m getting ready for that event by spending the next week or so painting the scary just under the surface. A surreal look into my nightmares and the monsters that hide within the crevices of my mind and in the not-so-darken shadows. Some monsters are terrible like the ones I mentioned above, but some monsters, have been mislabeled and are actually good. Can you tell the difference? It’s time to get to know our demons.
Here is what I have painted so far.
All art by Amy Davis Roth
