Samson's Foxes (Indio Version)

I like to think of a painting as a film reduced to one frame. Painting a man tying torches to 300 foxes' tails is problematic, even to visually imagine. But in this painting I took a valuable lesson from the Indio artists who reveal their stories in woven designs. The tails of Samson's foxes here become visually woven into the painted design of the background tapestry image allowing my realistic image to play out as a tapestry design.

This concept of visual story-telling was a revelation and invaluable visual tool to me as a Western artist. Of course I am incorporating this "I-cat" weaving style into my own in a typically Post-modern way, similar to the way that Picasso appropriated African and Cycladic art into his own Cubist style.  Yet I am grateful and awed by the knowledge that we continue to extract from the so-called "primitive" cultures that survive here in the Philippines. 

Judges 14:10-15:6