Wiggle Your Feet

Wiggle Your Feet
2008 - 11"x12", Mixed media on wood
www.ErikVP.com

The two ostriches are observing the strange looking fish. They conclude that it must be a mudskipper hopping around on land. Fish tells them he is not a mudskipper. "Mudskippers have modified pectoral fins for walking on land, but I have legs and feet just like you", says fish. Yellow ostrich is skeptical and tells fish to wiggle his feet. Fish wiggles his feet.

There was a previous painting underneath this one that had some yellow. I didn't like it and started covering the painting with gesso (white primer). There was this little section of yellow in the middle that I liked so left it alone. The yellow turned into an ostrich. I drew the fish, cliff, and the second ostrich. It looked a little too plain for me, so I glued some newspaper along the top of the painting and did some random doodling on each piece.

If you look at a larger, detailed photo on my website, you will see the phrase "Wiggle your feet several times..." in the yellow newspaper section. I really liked the phrase and that inspired the short story and the title. I normally put feet on the walking fish, but the animals normally have legs & no feet. On the yellow ostrich, you can see that the feet were added in later since I used charcoal and it was a little darker that the pencil I used for the legs.

I went to Thailand years ago and saw some mudskippers (amphibious fish that hop around on land). They are one of the most fascinating creatures I have ever seen. I have a painting from earlier in 2008 called "UFO". The painting underneath UFO had a mudskipper in it, and I had mixed feelings about painting over it, but eventually did and it evolved into UFO.

An exacto knife was used to scratch up the surface, and there are a few traces of gold and red paint exposed from the previous painting. The newspaper also gets torn up a little, and I leave most of the loose pieces alone, but remove anything that's too fragile and about to come loose. You can't see this in the photo, but if you ever see my work in real life, you will see this in most paintings with newspaper.

Fire

Fire
2008 - 11"x12", Mixed media on wood
Price: $300US
www.ErikVP.com

Even after doing this summary, my thoughts about the meaning of this painting remain fragmented. I can explain some of the random thoughts that inspired the painting along with the symbolisms. When I am creating a painting, I just create. It's not until after the painting is done that I try to unravel what it's about.

- On 9/11/08, I walked by a fire station near my apartment and saw a bunch of firemen returning from the ceremony at ground zero. Some of the symbolisms related to 9/11 include, the red firehouse & ladder, arabic type graffiti on the mountains, fire, red smoke in the sky, the twin towers symbolized by the two trees on top of the pink mountain, with the right one beginning to fall, the four floating pyramids symbolizing the twin towers, Pentagon & United flight#93

- The walking fish has been in a few previous paintings, although this is the first fire breathing fish. There's sort of a life & death theme since both the walking fish and the ankh can represent life, yet the fire, floating ankhs & pyramids represent death.

- The white, black, blue, and red water drops falling from the sky onto the fire-breathing fish could represent the cycle of life and death. They could also be thought of as war and conflict, or "good" vs "evil" between the United States(red/white/blue) and Middle East (black).

- I recently read, "Basquiat - A Quick Killing In Art", and remember thinking a lot about the similarities between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jimi Hendrix including how both died early in their careers due to their loosing struggles with drugs. The fire-breathing fish is my favorite part of the painting. "Fire" is one of my favorite Hendrix songs, so that inspired the title.

Many of my paintings include the sun, but it's a little less obvious in this painting. It's the black & white sun on a stick to the right of the yellow mountain. It's more of an American indian sun god than a traditional sun.

You will notice I have both colored pencil and pastel pencil listed in the ingredients. The M&M flowers at the base of the mountains are pastel pencil. The pastel pencils are softer and have more friction between the painted wood and the pencil lead, so you get a better buildup of color. I tried using the colored pencils first, but they looked dull. The outlines of the moutains are colored pencils, and this works because it's directly on unpainted wood. The pastel pencils are delicate and smear easily. A sprayed varnish needs to be applied very lightly.