Visual Essay Proposal

{There are two people who are close to me... and I will prefer to them as A and B}

For my project I have chosen the theme of “The King and Queen of Candy Land” which I will illustrate on wood panel consequently enhancing and embellishing it in acrylics. The piece is approximately 32x48. The final Illustration will be showcased in a frame reminiscent of the Rococo style with it's gilded and overly frilly trappings. The comical and playful imagery has a serious subtext. A and B who unfortunately over the years have undergone a peculiar transformation inspire me. Once proud and self-assured members of the community, they have experienced a gradual physical, spiritual, and emotional decline. In the process of this, both of them have accepted to see themselves as invalids and suffer from a plethora of real and imagined sufferings. A and B, whom I love dearly and who were the most beautiful people in the world, have now accepted a life of over-administering the many drugs and prescriptions that are made available to them by the medical field. They have developed what I would describe as genuine addictions yet if confronted about the issue, both A and B would be in complete denial. I have observed how formely adequate prescriptions are now running out quickly ahead of time. It has further deteriorated into a situation where A will get up at the crack of dawn to be the first at the pharmacy to get prescriptions filled. This has seemingly evolved into a lucrative cottage industry, for the doctors and pharmacists alike. Surely everyone agrees that there are some serious sufferings that need ever more serious medications. I watch them and I observe how these once proud human beings have meta-morphed into ghoulish characters of their former selves. I see them digress into their personal miserable world. I observe their necks twisting and the eyes rolling in a tormented manner struggling to stay coherent. They are in my eyes a King and Queen who have evolved into macabre characters struggling with perfect appearances, yet quickly descending into dread and despair. The king resides in his comfort chair with his ‘can’ serving as a gauche (dipping) spittoon holding it proudly and high much like a king would hold his royal scepter. He and the queen are feeding off an abundant jar filled with colorful candies in toxic hues. The perversion of beauty is the product of gluttony in which beauty in moderation becomes ghastliness in overabundance.