The painting is entitled "Fat Over Lean". In terms of oil painting, this phrase applies to the method of varying the composition of sequential layers of paint in order to avoid creating a painting that will crack as it ages. As a metaphor for cultural memory, I think the phrase has a great deal of depth and encompasses a range of historical interpretation and popular ideas about history. I was thinking about an empire built on the backs of slaves, about economic cycles of fat and lean times, and about the desire we all have to idealize certain eras and memories in order to comfort ourselves from the pain of the past and the present.
The application of paint will reflect these themes as it varies from broad, creamy, luxurious strokes in some areas, to the thinest scraping of paint, barely covering the canvas, in others.
One of the themes explored in the colours I have chosen is the glorification of history. The background building is the Natural History Museum in London--surely a fairy tale building if there ever was one. Although the period of oral history is behind us here in the west, we are certainly not beyond the psychological need for fairy tales with all of their attendant characterizations, if the popularity of BBC Historical Dramas is anything to judge by. Obviously that requires forgetting!
