Taming the Volcano

 

These paintings depict a comical side of passion by chronicling a messy, pepto-abysmal cycle of angst and sacrifice through a volcanic explosion.

I painted Taming the Volcano while living in Malaysia where the circumstances of my situation were difficult at best. I often found myself impatient, frustrated, intolerant, and ready to explode with anger. I felt like an unpredictable volcano.

I was also like a naive villager living in fear of a fiery demise. I would make sacrificial offerings and prayers to the volcano in hopes of calming it, but nothing worked. The brewing, eruptive, destructive, regenerative, cathartic process was inevitable. Like an island forming, like a mountain growing, like a nation developing, I too was going through some growing pains.