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Violet Crimes

22" x 15", watercolour, 1994, private collection

When I was doing portraits of my fellow crewmembers during my years at The Shopping Channel in the 90s, my crew's Audio/Video Operator, Michelle, opted to have me paint a pun she though was amusing (the full title of this painting is "A Sudden Increase in Violet Crimes"), based on the many jokes we'd all make during the course of too many overnight shifts. Unlike some of the jokes from that time, I don't remember the context for this one at all.

It's pretty subtle, and perhaps not a very good illustration of the pun (those are supposed to be knives held by the flowers, pointing at the woman), but that was my intent because the humour may eventually be lost, but this composition can hopefully still be enjoyed.

That weird white glow on her right hand is the result of my trying to get rid of some nasty glare off the glass the painting was framed behind. It's not just that a lot of my early work was bad/mediocre that I don't consider it blog-worthy, but sometimes I just don't have very good photos of the paintings (and most aren't available to me anymore for various reasons).



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