Roadkill bothers me more than most people I guess. And the roadsides here in the northeast are tragic testaments to a silent conflict between modern human life and our wild relatives. Bodies everywhere it seems - deer, possums, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, birds. "Poor little things," we might think as we whizz past them in our hard shiny cars. Collateral damage.
Last summer as I was whizzing along the highway I passed a dead deer, its neck in the most graceful arc, breathtakingly beautiful even in death. The image was seared into my mind. Driving along, I thought about how I might paint these roadside martyrs. Because what else can I do? This helplessness and sadness that I feel. I had a few sketches, but nothing was really clicking.
Then October 7, the horrors in Israel and Palestine. All I see are bodies of innocents. Collateral damage. And that feeling of helplessness and sadness. And so I painted.
I'm calling it "Our Lady of Sorrows."