Untitled on Purpose | Chris Cook Artist

This painting is titled “Untitled on Purpose” – on purpose. I have found that most folks that see this painting have some unique idea of what it is and what it means, if not, they will ask me about what it means.

I will give you some ideas about how this work came to being, but don’t want to give too much of my thoughts, as I have really enjoyed hearing from you all. Go see some of what I am talking about when this painting was posted to my Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/ChrisCookTheArtist/posts/1422255384578492

I spend quite a bit of time just searching for interesting images on several royalty free photo depository websites, or sometimes while looking for a photo for a new website that I am building, I just stumble upon a photo that captures something inside of me and drag it into a folder on my computer called “2 Paint”.

I found an image of a woman in a house dress looking out a screen door… that is the spark that set this – what I think is – one of my most inspired paintings of late. (I had been praying for real inspiration for quite a while before finding the core inspiration in that photo). I pulled the image down and started playing with it in Photoshop a little, extending it wider… then I left it alone for a while.

Later on, in looking through that folder of images that I had saved, I thought about the scripture where Jesus made the statement “many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (Matthew 19:30). As this woman in her surroundings seemed somewhat poor, maybe a little scared – staring ahead at something we can’t see, I felt it an interesting start for a painting. When Jesus is talking about this in that verse, I think He was speaking about eternity – after the second coming. That had me searching for “Second Coming” paintings from the past and I found a few that I could use as imagery in the outdoors of this painting.

All the other elements in the painting, like the black cat, industrial clock, the time on the clock, the strange lights on the wall, the light switch, power plug, television, what is on the tv screen, fly swatter, the “seemingly see through door” with a crucifix behind it… were all added on as I continued to paint. This painting was on and off my easel for several months. You can see the results in the painting below or here on my website –