This acrylic on canvas piece is 30” X 24”. It is stretched on a sturdy stretcher, with end to end wiring on the back.

Using automatic painting an atmosphere surfaced from a book that influenced me as a teenager. The sun and the ocean are metaphors for existential forces in Camus’sThe Stranger. The sun’s oppressive presence symbolizes the absurdity and indifference of the universe, while the ocean offers moments of fleeting freedom and pleasure. These two aspects of the external landscape shape the inner landscapes of Meursault’s world. The sun's relentless heat and glare during the beach scene overwhelm Meursault, almost taking on a hostile, antagonistic role. He describes it as blinding, disorienting, and physically unbearable. Meursault impulsively shoots a man after being disoriented by the sun’s glare reflecting off the water.

“The sun was the same as it had been the day I buried Maman, and like then, my forehead especially was hurting me, all the veins throbbing together under the skin.”