"Peace" ...for my next illusion I'll need a volunteer from...everyone.

Oil on museum quality, archival 1/8" ampersand gessobord panel - 5" x 7"

Peace - what a concept.  When I was a young man the war in Vietnam was going strong. For my dad, it was the Germans and the Japanese.  Korea, Granada, (Granada?!) the Middle East...When will it all end? Why all this hatred? Why can't we all just get along?  I don't get it!

Magicians have a trick they do with a pan and a dove.  They pour lighter fluid into a pan and ignite it, then they close the lid.  When they open it -Voilà, a live dove appears.  Oh, that peace was that easily achieved.  I am not usually given to symbolism in my work, but this piece is rife with it.  The composition appears to be severed in half; two separate elements; dove and chick pan, separated by a sea of worn out red crushed velvet. You don't have to be Fellini to figure the red cloth or the dove.  I suppose I could have made it more exciting; flames shooting out of the pan, etc. but by the simple fact of isolating the dove from the trick shows how impossibly far even the illusion of peace is from reality.   

"Imagine all the people living life in peace.  You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.  I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one" - John Lennon