“Sharing the Cabin Fever”

16”x20” encaustic, 2020 April. This painting is reference to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - my most favorite book of all times. It is also a metaphor to humanity's situation during the pandemic. The Old Man Santiago and the Blue Marlin were each other’s perfect opponents. They respected each other’s strengths and vitality - yet their nature put them into a position where they had to fight each other for only one to survive. In the end, both of them lost to the sharks… Sometimes life takes strange twists and turns, thus former enemies have to surrender to an invisible third. History has proven that whoever belongs to “us” and “them” may shift in just a few moments, depending on the circumstances. This pandemic was a good time to re-evaluate what is truly important to fight for, so that we don’t end up with just dust and bones. (That’s an encaustic fish skeleton. :))