Are We There Yet?

In its original form, this piece endeavored to exploit the ageless axiom, "art imitates life", where ART is personified by the imposing, six-foot high, male "artist-figure" and, LIFE is depicted in the many two-dimensional, black-and-white newspaper clippings and by the full-color photo-montage/decoupage backpanel and, also, by the six (6) three-dimensional scenarios (executed on artists palettes and either mounted on raised pedestals, or on the arm of the "artist-figure"). The clean recycled "trash" elements, on the floor, symbolize the "excess baggage" which we all accumulate, in life (and in art). That "trash" is conveniently used by the artist to symbolize our "baggage" and as an integrating medium, to break-up the stark verticality of the major elements/backdrop and "tie it all together"

In its present form, however, another imposing, five-foot high, female "mother-figure", with child, has been added.

Symbolically, the "mother-figure" is cradling a distorted "man-child" form, which represents embattled, embattered and, indeed, endangered children (of all ilk), but most particularly, inner-city, minority youth.

Parenthetically, the "artist-figure" is, at once, the CREATOR and the CREATED; the newsclippings and the color photos are, at one and the same time, the news (LIFE and the artist's created imagery (ART); the six (6) three-dimensional scenarios are, both reality (LIFE), and sculpture (ART).

The overriding implication is that we, adults, have truly "made a mess of this world" (or, at least, we have stood idly by and not done anything significant toward making the world, "a better place for the children"). The children and the environment in which they have been raised are not two things, separate and distinct; the "state of the children" is merely a reflection of the "state of the environment".