R6 Rose in Kitchen

R6 Rose in Kitchen
24 x 36" oil on panel
Private Collection

The first painting in the series to employ the checkerboard motif that became part of the Nuclear series. Rose and I were fascinated with the light patterns on the kitchen floor, and she posed there for the drawing. She spent several days sitting in her leotard on the cold floor and feeling, as she put it, “a little strange about anyone walking in.” This is a good likeness, and Rose’s husband approved. The raven shape appears in her hair, and the raven himself is supposed to be hopping across the floor, just out of the picture (his shadow appears in the floor).

Although it took me days to do the checkerboard in the curtains, and I swore never to do it again, I went on to use the motif in several more paintings in the Nuclear sequence. As in the other Nuclear pictures, the red checks represent order and peaceful domesticity, the chaotic shadows in the floor reflecting the turmoil outside the window (the world outside).