In The Middle Of A War

• In the middle of a war –
• A televised footnote from a sponsor.
• 36” x 30”, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2003

The background context to this painting is that I was sitting on our lounge one Friday night watching the football on television. Suddenly, the football telecast was interrupted with a news flash from the unfolding Iraq war. The television screen lit up with live footage from Iraq and I could see someone was being killed in real-time right then – you could see the guns firing. Simultaneously, streaming across the top of the TV screen were stock market updates and at the bottom of your TV screen you could see other football results.

This painting is the outcome of my imagining how disrespected I would feel if it had have been me being murdered on that day. In that moment, those stock market and football results were being treated as if they were just as important as that person’s death.