The Arms Race

38"x60"

Advanced Painting - Spring 05

Acrylic on Canvas. The second painting of the spring semester. This originally started out as a piece about Fallen Angels which later transformed into a satirical take on the Nuclear Arms race, with the Fallen Angels being transformed into multiple representations of the Angel of Death. These ‘Angels of Death’ now representing the Nuclear Missiles developed by the Superpowers of the human race as a means to “end war” or “preserve peace.”
I made use of photographic references for nuclear missiles as well as photographs from the Atomic bomb tests of the 1950s. I retained the basic look of the Angels already laid out on the canvas, but proceeded to apply major changes to the background around them, adding tones of yellow, orange and red to create the sky. I then applied jet trails coming from the bottoms of the angels, depicting them as actual missiles in flight. In the background, I went through a major bravery test in adding a mushroom cloud at the center, seemingly emerging out of the converging columns of Angels. For this painting, I had to develop colors I’d never used before, brighter and brighter tones of yellow orange and even using white paint straight from the tube enable to make the mushroom cloud as bright and powerful as possible.