This is a painting I did for a Rancho Santa Fe client with a massive Renaissance style home.  It is eight foot square and hangs in the entry hall which is bigger than most peoples living rooms.  It is called The Allegory of Love and loaded with symbolism.  The naked foot, wreath, branch, dog, giant orb, horn - like poetry the artist orchestrates the visual plane.  We may not know the specifics of what it all means but definitely it is a crowning moment and testament to something sacred.

As is typical with RSF residents - a huge dangling carrot was hung.  Deals and bargains arranged as there was volumes of space to be filled.  Even after this demonstration of skill this gentlemen started begrudging that a lowly artist should be making so much money off of him.  He should have other artists - not just Linda Churchill's all over the place.  To find something like this in a gallery he would be paying twenty times the amount of money.  And I made it to fit his very specific proportions.  I created massive still lives born of the Renaissance that spanned his ornate carved fireplaces.  Huge Italian landscapes that filled the vaulted space of his living rooms.  A gorgeous faux carved stone wine vault.  It all looked so fabulous but this man was not happy.  He acted as though I had conned him.  I suggested ornamenting his kitchen ceiling which was vast and seen clearly from the sunken living room.  That's when he put his foot down - enough!  This is a man who owns a pharmaceutical company - profiting vastly from the legal trade of drugs - he really didn't like me very much in the end.  He was a very important man in his own estimation.   I did my best to make his surroundings appear far more rich than his neighbors.  The dangling carrot - always elusive - the finale of the master bedroom suite never to be realized.  And of coarse never a referral or reception to introduce me to his realm of other wealthy people.  

I suppose I could advertise my talents in that district as there are so many of these kinds of properties there.  But I am way to sensitive to subtle aggressions.  I am pretty certain that had Nick been around smoking cigarettes in the back ground, assisting with the installations this guy would have loved to throw his money our way.    In business it's a mans world.  I just keep doing the best I can.