It has often been said that positioning paintings at our eye-line helps us make beguiling associations throughout the day. This painted image provided us with a much needed psychological component to our environment. In the heart of Philadelphia, and particularly during Winter months, we found ourselves wishing to inhabit a different biosphere. In addition to the nostalgia of the dream vacation, connecting with the figure through the gaze indulged us into heightened appreciation of male youth and physical strength.
And so my narrative is as follows =
A young man tests his strength on a home-made swing. He pushes back, ready for a spin, and remembers the carefree days of his childhood in a tropical paradise, represented here by a contemporary Brazilian landscape. The swing provides a suitable activity to accentuate the theme of youth. The swing's fraying rope not only describes the motion, but how the carefully wound rope unravels from an ordered state to a disordered state, relating to the directionality of our lives. The youthful and handsome central figure, every bit as athletic as a Hellenistic sculpture, conveys innocence. A questioning look at the gazer seems to ask "Why am I here and what will become of me?" Purple orchids tossed by the wind echo the theme of entropy and add mystery to the sunny atmosphere in the Garden of Eden.