My interpretation of this painting is as follows;

This is how I feel when I am being harassed by fools, be they more OR less powerful than myself. The fish hooks represent tedious morons and those with power ripping at my body and mind, trying to pull me into their world of mediocrity, to make me feed THEIR desires and agendas. The barbed hooks yank and pull at me in ten thousand directions EVERY fucking day of my life!

The tortures and torments of everyday existence become customary, expected ... But are they necessary? Is this all necessary in order to maintain some absurd discipline? Perhaps without the disciplines of pain we would not fully appreciate our indulgences in pleasure. Or, is that just what the powerful of society wants us to believe? Have they succeeded in brainwashing us into believing this? Do we really need to put in our 'pain hours' in order to enjoy our moments of pleasure and relaxation?

Is it truth that we must work at jobs that we hate, do things that make us uncomfortable and drain our best energy in order to fully appreciate the pleasantries in life? Or is this just the hype that keeps us worker ants enslaved so that those in power can enjoy their lives to the fullest? Do we live lives in purgatory so that a tiny few can create their heaven on Earth?

How many of us REALLY escape this evil Yin-Yang lie? Are we puppets to the few humans that control our lives for their own selfish ends?

Or is it truly Gods will that 'Man shall work by the sweat of his brow'? Is it sinful NOT to have a Yin-Yang relationship with pain and pleasure?

Am I personally tortured by this? FUCK yes! Every time I must leave my creation and go do something that I must do in order to make money, I am tortured! How many of you will escape this fate? How many of you think that you will exist in your short life doing what you love to do without the fishhooks of outside interests forcing you down a path you do not wish to travel?

Are we free, or are we slaves to the structure of the society that we must survive within? Is it God or fate or society or you or just plain stupid LUCK that controls your destiny?

All I know that try as I might, I have never been able to extricate myself from the entanglement of these fishhooks. These hooks represent the situations that prevent me from being who I envision myself to be, who I WANT to be, and what I WANT to do!

Perhaps you will be more clever than I, and be able to live a life free from the influences that these fish hooks and the lines represent. I wish you well.

This piece was painted for a group showing at the La Luz De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, California in 1990. The Theme of the Show was ideas conjured by the book "Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs, (1591-1600 AD)". Unfortunately, the illustration I did for the book, wherein a martyr was sewn within the rotting carcass of a dead Bull and left to die by being eaten by the maggots and flies and wasps, was destroyed in the fire of July 1995.