"Secret Weapon" -- oil on canvas -- 48x48"

One of my friends asked me to put up one of my surreal pieces. I enjoy doing them, but I can't paint them all the time. It takes a special degree of angst for me to paint one of these. Usually most of mine have been inspired after I'd broken up with some dude. Art therapy, you could call it. But this one was done right before the start of the Iraq War. I was so upset and fearful. The hunt was on for Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Why couldn't they be found? I'm not a fan of war, and I was very upset. So I did the one thing I could do: I painted the solution. Yes, giant attack accordions, manned by madusa-heads of my favorite dog puppet heads. They're searching out the 2 villans and shooting down deadly bolts of blue lightning. Just for the hell of it, I also threw in some turquoise Ford Thunderbirds, flying around. I work at the plant that made (yes -- past-tense!) the Thunderbird. The accordion was from an unfortunate judgement made on eBay a few years ago. Well, I put it so some good use at least in this painting! As I said, I just can't do this type of painting all the time. If I was at the emotional brink it requires to paint these all the time, I'd have been committed to the funny farm years ago. Which probably explains why I've SO been into painting landscapes. It's like when you've seen just a bit too much --- you want to retreat into the safety of the non-controversial. There were a few years where I was really into shamanism and traveled to Peru three times with study groups. We were immersed into native shamanism a little too deeply. I saw things that upset me greatly. So I've retreated to things like "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. Nothing bizarre there, for which I'm grateful.