LET HIM BE OR NOT TO BE Oil on linen, 60' x 42', (153 cm x107 cm)
In this Painting I address the issue of abortion, which evolved from a private issue to a heated political debate between pro life and pro choice camps. Certainly it expresses the ambivalence, pain and suffering that abortion encompasses. I titled the painting ?Let him be or not to be? to embrace and encapsulate the ambiguity at the core of the issue: Let the baby exists or not, to be or not to be. Or, alternatively, with a linguistic variation, ?Let Him Be -Or Not To Be? ,the "not to be" may refer to another reality, notably the mother?s inner validity and existence. The main figure is a suffering young woman, in a moment of personal and intimate agony. Her hand is grasping the wound edge. The spirit exits the wound that she holds. Did she tear the baby from her womb, is she in the process of cutting her belly open, or is she caressing the wound, helping the emerging spirit out? The wound has the shape of a vagina, which refers to the lost-potential of a normal delivery. The background is suggestive of a womb The figure is centered on the canvas as a mother is a stable image. The figure is at the center of the painting to emphasize the stabilizing influence a mother has in our lives. The unstable component, which can be seen emerging from the plane of the canvas, is the spirit, embryo, or fully-developed baby. However it is interpreted, its emergence has created an agonizing conflict for the mother.