70″ X 54″, Oil, Acrylic, Gold leaf on Canvas (no collage or applique), 2025 (Hotel California Series)
This painting depicts a sort of “cartouche” frame where inside a pattern made up of a multitude of tiny, everyday people are painted, each one confined to their personal space defined by chain-link “fences”. More than barriers; they represent the cells we inhabit, a metaphor for the isolating nature of social media. Each individual is a world unto themselves, detached from their neighbors, despite being in close proximity.
Yet, a profound paradox exists: these individual cells are physically linked together by the same chains that create them. This “interconnectedness” represents the very platforms that promise to bring us closer, but often leave us feeling more isolated than ever. We are connected, yes, but in a way that emphasizes our separateness, each of us a silent witness to the lives of others without true, shared experience.
This static, isolated world is dramatically juxtaposed by the surrounding pattern in which the artist has intentionally incorporated the hourglass suggesting that time and space are not independent entities but are intrinsically linked. The trickle of sand reminds us that our time is a finite resource, a precious commodity that is constantly ebbing away. In this context, the painting becomes a profound call urging one to recognize that the preciousness of our time should compel us to break free from an unreal digital confinement and forge genuine, tangible connections with the world and the people around us before the sand runs out.
