BANANA JOE

Acrylic on canvas, 50.8 x 50.8 cm, April 2019

I’ve always loved animal prints. I wanted to create a print that I did not feel was already done, such as a tiger or zebra print. I therefore looked through a variety of animals and their markings and I thought that there was potential to do something interesting with a giraffe print. However, in order to be consistent with my other pieces, I needed to find a way to add my own twist and approach to the piece. I did this by making the giraffe print black and white. Yet just an animal print seemed too blank to me. The design was begging for an extra layer to really make the piece pop. I therefore decided to paint a yellow smiley face, almost continuing from where I left off with my series entitled Happy Faces. The decision to paint two sets of eyes was done to further evoke an unsettling theme of weirdness and humor. Finally the name Banana Joe came from the yellow of the face and the first name that came to mind