Me & Ben
(April, 2007)
varnished tempera on watercolor board
10 inches x 40 inches
this piece belongs to the private collection
of Jonathan and Benjamin Sims
This painting is named in honor of two sets of brothers: Me and my brother Ben, and Jonathan and Ben Sims who now own this painting.
When you're a kid you can play games and get so involved in them that you loose touch with what grown-ups regard as reality. Here we have two kids playing knights at a grown-up social gathering. It is fair to ask: which world is more real? The drab world of chit-chat and social posturing, or the world of sword fights between the orange knight and the green knight? At least the kids are living from their hearts. And there is innocence there and the vigor of being alive and in conflict. The human inner-workings come to the surface rather than being pretended away from fear of rejection or whatever.
I am more like the kid on the left, my brother more like the kid on the right. I'm the awkward introvert who would have spent two hours making my cardboard helmet and carefully cutting the eye hole with an x-acto knife, only to realize when I put it on that the eye slit ended up on my forehead. And then I'm not so sure this swordfighting thing was a good idea because I think I might get hurt. But some kids are more gung-ho like my brother and just lay it out there on the line.
Suppose the deep heart of reality is far more playful than we give it credit for.
baker