Friday, April 8, 2016

Hotspur (321)

"Hotspur (321)", oil on canvas, 24x24". For sale on Etsy, $350.
"Sometimes he angers me
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant."

Hotspur complains about his Welsh father-in-law in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1. The father-in-law is fond of poetry, using flowery language and mythical references whenever he speaks. Hotspur prefers to be blunt and plainspoken. He wants action and violence, not pretty words. 

The moldwarp (mole) and the ant are part of an unnamed Welsh legend. This is one of the very few references that Shakespeare makes to ants. For this painting, I challenged myself to join ants and Shakespeare (my randomly selected topics). All of the elements of this painting are taken from reality. My husband posed as Hotspur, staring in disgust and irritation at an oversized ant sitting on his smartphone. The ant is a toy that we own. The large face in the background is Shakespeare. It is part of a mural printed on a building façade in downtown Indianapolis. 

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