A Discussion of a Painting-- "Aint' Buying"

'Ain't Buying' acrylic on canvas 5"x7"

It appears we are yet in another housing/real estate bubble, and I find that quite ironic, since this work was made during the previous one. This piece is part of my 2008  'Breaking Between Commercials' series, a time when I was chin deep in my own mid-life crisis, and my country, with its bail-outs and cheap paper money was careening through a mental breakdown.  It took many a year for my husband and I to finally purchase our first home, mainly because we were not dazzled by 'easy' loans and high pressure promises. This painting reflects lessons learned during that frustrating time.
 
Of course, we have a pin-up girl front and center, because sex sells everything, a goddess in a swimming suit ushering in the 'good life'. The credit cards are like little stepping stones, dancing their way up to a plastic, house-shaped game piece from a Monopoly board. A tiny detail often missed is the realtor sign in front of it. As this work is only 5"x 7", I cannot tell you how many hours I worked with fine pin-pointed brushes to get those details on the credit cards...they are harder to paint than one might think, and especially on such a small scale.

The squirt guns in the foreground were a last minute touch, and I think that they add just a little bit of menace to the picture. They also give the sense of 'being under the gun', of being pressured, and yet, they are the color of popsicles and rainbows. They symbolize how so many people can become hypnotized by colorful notions of  'no down payments'  and a glamorous house--and then wake up to foreclosure nightmares.

The background of this work is barren...it could be a sandy beach or a desert, but whatever it is, nothing grows there. A home is different than a house, merry-go-round ponies only take you in circles, and going after more, more, more just takes more from you. Hopefully, someday, we will learn all that.