Description
“Blacklisted” is a deeply layered visual journal of my journey through Italy, weaving the haunting history of the catacombs with a rush of personal childhood memories. Painted on a commanding 48″ x 60″ canvas, the sheer scale of the piece ensures that every architectural twist and hidden memory holds a striking impact on the wall. The canvas is built as a dense, complex mosaic under a soaring red archway, pulling you into a fractured cityscape where the past and present collide.
If you look closely, you will spot specific fragments from my travels that left a lasting imprint on my mind. Rising from the right side are the iconic blue swirled wooden poles from the Venice gondola docks. Near the lower right, a tilted graphic sign pulls directly from a construction site outside my hotel in Bologna. In the bottom left corner, the prominent graphic icon is a nostalgic nod to a memorable date I had in Italy, taken straight from a restaurant logo that translates to “eat and drink.”
The true heart of this painting lies within its psychological metaphors. The huddled sheep in the foreground are a direct play on being the “black sheep” of the family, while the large green figure climbing the staircase on the right is modeled after the classic toy green army men I played with as a child. Together, they form a visual pun on the title itself—being “blacklisted” from the army—mirroring a sense of isolation and exclusion I carried with me as a kid.
Standing beneath an umbrella in the center of the road is a lone figure looking toward the sheep, symbolizing how I felt growing up—like I was standing out in the rain while everyone else huddled together. High in the arches, mummies from the catacombs loom over the scene, representing the heavy weight of ancestral history. Yet, the canvas is packed with multiple open doorways. These doors represent the choices I had to escape that isolation. Ultimately, I did just that—I chose to walk through them, breaking the old cycle of loneliness and stepping into my own light.
Within the pages of my book, this scene belongs entirely to Mo. It captures the bittersweet moment where his original owners want him back after throwing him out for being a decrepit old horse—suddenly changing their minds only because Mo has found fame.