LA RAGAZZA E IL POMODORO (Commissioned)

LA RAGAZZA E IL POMODORO (The Girl And The Tomato), 2021
Acrylic / Mixed Media On Canvas
36 x 48 in
COMMISSIONED by a client in Singapore

If there is one painting I’ve done with the most substantial backstory, profound changes and detours during its fruition, this would be it. This was commissioned at the end of 2019, a month before the pandemic hit SG, and the first work I’ve completed since February 2020. I did not pick up the paintbrush again until the tailend of February 2021.

To say that it was a struggle to create something fun with everything going on is a massive understatement. I am grateful for this project because it allowed me to be strange and was the perfect endeavour during such a dreary point in history.

Wife said she wanted a portrait of her and the husband. Wife tells husband excitedly about her fabulous idea. Husband vehemently refused to indulge in such vanity.

Wife tells me, “Well. I still want our portrait and I want him in it.” So we both think while eating our lunch at Nassim Hill Bakery, and agreed to put “not-him” in the painting.

And thus, a very personal and meaningful artwork was born. 

There were key instructions for this collaboration:

1. She specifically wanted an American Gothic version of themselves.

2. Shophouses behind them were a must. 

3. Her husband is Italian and loves to have some form of tomato in every single meal.

4. There is a tiny tribute to her late father, who cultivated his own pineapple patch while she was growing up.

5. She told me to turn her husband into a tomato.