23 February, 2007

Ben (2007)




acrylic on canvas 600mm x 600mm


Ben thinks I’ve made him look ‘cancerous’ in this painting, he may be right, flattery has rarely been a term in my palette.

For me, it’s all about the smirk…

* Filed by shardcore at 10:27 am under painting
* 2 Comments

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12 February, 2007

Steve (2007)




acrylic on canvas 600mm x 600mm


* Filed by shardcore at 1:28 pm under painting
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Adam (2007)



acrylic on canvas 600mm x 600mm

* Filed by shardcore at 11:51 am under painting
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1 February, 2007

Edison and Topsy (2006)




acrylic on canvas, 600mm x 600mm

Thomas Edison is often hailed as the great American Inventor, resonsible for such innovations as the phonograph and the lightbulb (which of course, he didn’t actually invent).

The truth however, is that he was never much of an innovator, his method was to employ hundreds of minions to ‘improve’ on existing designs, and utilise his capitalistic savvy to secure lucrative patent rights, frequently at the expense of the genuine innovators.

My previous painting of Tesla makes mention of his fractious relationship with Edison, and this painting touches on one rather unpleasant result of their feud. Edison believed his direct current system should be the dominant means of distributing electricity to the home, whereas Tesla favoured high-voltage alternating current. While good sense finally prevailed, and we all now enjoy the benefits of AC in our homes, Edison spent much of his own energy trying to dismiss his rival’s system as ‘dangerous’. It was such fervour which resulted in Edison inventing the electric chair as a means of capital punishment, to demonstrate the dangers of high-voltages. He also made public demonstrations of its lethal power by travelling the country electricuting animals.

Most notably he was responsible for the execution of Topsy the elephant by firing 6,600 volts through the poor creature’s body, after the animal was deemed a danger to human life after killing an abusive trainer.

Of course, Edison filmed to scene for posterity. watch it on YouTube.

* Filed by shardcore at 1:35 pm under painting
* 3 Comments

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