36" x 48" x 1.75"
Oil on Canvas
SOLD (collector in Arvada, Colorado)
Catastrophe, from the artist’s Series of Pun Paintings, takes its starting point from a familiar phrase overheard in a news broadcast: “It was a catastrophe.” Breaking the word down phonetically “cat”, “ass” (donkey), and “trophy” the painting transforms language into a literal visual construction.
By translating sound into image, the work explores how meaning shifts when language is dismantled and reassembled. The inclusion of a flintlock musket introduces a sense of historical nostalgia, evoking the aesthetic of an old cabin wall and contrasting the urgency of contemporary news with a more antiquated visual language. Humor serves as the entry point, but the work ultimately invites viewers to consider how easily words and the weight we give them can be reframed through perception and context.