A Doorway to J o e
THE ART of JOE COLEMAN
1994 — 28 x 22 inches
“Mommy/Daddy is a portrait of my parents pinned down and dissected like specimens for scientific examination. I painted my mother and father as opposing extremes of good and evil, male and female, desire and fear. The painting is also a self-portrait and insofar as the hermaphrodite is an archetypal symbol of potential psychological wholeness, the process of painting it is an attempt to merge seemingly opposing forces from within.”
—JC
Fig. 36 Mommy / Daddy75
“This painting is about loneliness, isolation and the feeling of something fearsome and unknowable following me. It was painted at the end of a long-term romantic relationship.”
Fig. 37
Hell Hound on My Trail 1995 — 22 x 28 inches
—JC 76
77
