CANDY SERPENTS

Picasso's "Two Women Running on the Beach" (bottom) inspired me to do this painting, to which I originally gave the title, "A&E After Discovering the Joy of Sex". A and E are, of course, Adam and Eve. I asked a friend, May Reyes, if the title is risque- and she answered that it is. So, I re-titled this work "Candy Serpents." By the way, this painting involved double appropriation because the colorful drawings of serpents lined up at the bottom of the painting were copies of the doodles done by my younger son, Kai, when he was nine years old.

The issues that will be raised by this painting are twofold. One concerns the obscenity question, not with the images itself, but with my formerly titling this work as "A&E After Discovering the Joy of Sex." Many biblical figures, like Adam and Eve for example, are sacrosanct to many, and it wouldn't do to blatantly say that they indulged in such mundane pleasures as sexual intercourse..

The second issue is plagiarism. I would resent insinuations that I plagiarized the artworks of Picasso and my son Kai. I just appropriated them. I merely borrowed the images they created, altered them where I can, and merged the two, to create an entirely new painting with an entirely new meaning.