Tragic Flaw
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2009
Oil on linen
36" X 48"
Symbolism
This painting symbolizes the destruction that occurs when an individual or a culture focuses on attaining and keeping wealth and power, no matter who is hurt.
The figure - who is lying down and dressed in costly apparel - symbolizes seeking, attaining, and losing wealth. Her legs are hanging over a precipice and she is in danger of falling into nothingness. As she stares, unseeing, she is oblivious to how this is affecting the figure that is cradling her.
The sitting figure symbolizes the innocent who need sustenance and shelter. She has an expensive fan of peacock feathers in her upraised arm and is gently fanning the wealth-seeking figure in an act of love and caretaking. The eyes on the feathers see all that is happening. Unknown to the wealth-seeking figure, a rare ruby has fallen out of the ring on her finger, symbolizing the fragility and elusiveness of wealth.
While sadly staring out at the viewer, pleading in her eyes for anyone to see her pain and her need of help, the sitting figure reaches for the stone, as it is needed to care for others. The crumbling ruins that surround them symbolize the complete desolation that is occurring - both within and without. The darkened city in the background is the rejection and silence of seeing eyes.
About
Tragic Flaw came into my mind during a personal experience and took me 5 years to paint. This is my first figure painting, created using a combination of the Flemish and Venetian techniques of oil painting. It won an honorable mention at the Woodbury Art Museum in 2009 and an award of merit at the Springville Museum of Art in 2010.