This painting originated with a photo of Phosphorous bombs in the 2010 issue of World Press Photo. Phosphorous bombs are known to burn flesh to the bone, are outlawed by the Geneva Convention, and were being used on an oppressed people. With the exploding bombs are "dollar pyramids," together they reveal violence and greed on a pastel horizon. Front left is a herm derived from Mantegna lamenting the loss of virtue. In the foreground is a family group. I painted the child holding an assault rifle after reading about the number of children that die of gunshot wounds. The woman gazes up at a comic book-like hero. In his book on the Greek Heroes Stephen Fry said that the "heroes cleansed our world of...earth-born monsters that endangered mankind and threatened to choke the rise of civilization."
While painting this I thought about disproving Susan Sontag's statement that Camp is never political.