"Critical Mass"

"Critical Mass" One of my favorite artists was a man named William Harnett..... so, with this series which was to display my talents of painting, after a long spell [over a decade] of not painting, I decided to try my hand at doing something in the order of a trompe l'oeil.....hence, as seen in the close-up, my tribute to him... this is another of my odd twistings of objects used before - the mouse, of course, has been in many works now - and the snake was one which was in "Laissez-Faire", one of my two bicentennial paintings [the other being "Cymbal", the flying eagle one].... of course these are not usually thought of as proper in still-life works, because they are still full of life, and still-life usually involve non-moving objects..... however, there is the sense of s 'stilled life' which would work as well - and so it is thus with this work.... here are two objects usually not congenially seen together - and thus is born the theme/title, "Critical Mass", being that thick glass separating them... of course, too, just putting them together as this involves a quirky sense of humor as well, which is fine, as it would seem the mouse could use some every now and then, the way it has been seen in some of my works... there is no big philosophical issue here in this, just a fundamental notion of 'just space' which can apply to anyone seeking security..... the rest is just playing with the paint, seeing how far it could be taken in just a few hours, as well as seeing how in my mind the idea of glass could be worked convencingly...