Just Trying to Get By
(July, 2007)
varnished tempera on watercolor board
20 inches x 60 inches
this piece is currently
available for purchase
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This painting was originally done for a People Not Profit (.org) group show to benefit their work in El Salvador. However, it is about a set of global psychosocioeconomic phenomena not confined to that country alone.
I can't remember meeting a person who didn't think they were either doing the right thing most of the time, or else deep down they considered their motivations to be justified. We rationalize compulsive actions (if we question them at all) as necessary means for survival. Everybody thinks they are just trying to get by, or perhaps get ahead.
But there are many different versions of 'getting by.' The toddler just can't seem to find a decent toy or candy to suit his fancy so he throws a fit. The mom can't discipline her toddler so she spends money on him desperately. The businessman feels the pressure to meet consumer demand with a competitively priced product, so he outsources the contract to the lowest bidder. The foreign contractor sees the relative opulence in which the wealthy live and strives to acquire (irrespective of means) some scraps of business to improve his station in life. The poor children of the world, whose parents cannot afford to feed them, are constrained to hard labor for the contractor, themselves losing their childhood.
So somehow, in the midst of everybody looking out for their own hide, oppression is happening. The small self-serving decisions we make each day snowball into a monster.
I will say one more thing. The painting deliberately looks somewhat unfinished; like there is space where a seventh character should enter the scene and bring clarity and freedom to this mess. This painting is waiting.
baker