Goat and the Farmer. Series A-3.

Goat and his Farmer. 2008. New York. 18 x 13.2 cm. Pen.

The farmer in profile and his skeleton is all that remains from his wayward goat, which has eaten almost every ounce of muscle and organs from his defenseless body.  The drab, expressionless farmer seems somehow relieved to shed his earthly form.  The goat becomes his captive savior.  Like the artist himself, the farmer shifts roles to relate viscerally with generations of artists who’ve suffered their master’s requirements while sneaking some time for their other interests beyond mere survival. The goat, slightly above and left of the farmer, shows its exaggerated darkened eye and vertical pupil, one that so vigorously enjoys the loom of its captive feast. But how did the farmer become captive?  He lost a wager with two vagabond angels, cupids in fact, that fell from a heavy sky onto a branch in one of the farmer’s fields.  Mesmerized, the farmer joined in a long night of “story-telling” with the angels, which found him elevating beyond his worldly body for a time.  Seeing the farmer vulnerable and seemingly occupied elsewhere, the goat feasted.