Love’s A Big Fat River In Flood

loveisabig
  • Love’s a Big Fat River in Flood
  • 120” x 72”, acrylic on unstretched canvas, 1996

 

 

I borrowed the title from a chorus of a song by Sting, “Love is Stronger Than Justice”.

 

I imagine the river belting down the middle of the painting from right to left, collecting the yellow sediment you see painted in the bottom left-hand corner. The bottom right I imagine as a coral tree surrounded by all sorts of polluted rubbish somewhere off the coast of Australia; this contrasts with the relatively unspoiled orang coral tree in the top left. (I imagine a South Pacific Island, such as Aitutaki.) For me the seahorse in the top right is swimming against the tide, representing courage, imagination, and life.

 

I notice that countries with low GDP per capita often care for their environments very much better than so-called ‘developed’ countries; perhaps they’re better at understanding that this is the only environment we’ve actually got!