This 5-foot by 8-foot oil painting “CALM” depicts calmness amid extreme chaos. The aggressive, raging bull charging towards the crow represents the power behind destruction, as many children’s lives are literally taken from them by these powerful forces labeled predators. The crow represents death and transformation. The bull wants to destroy it before its change takes place. The figure at the top represents evil wishing to hide from humanity but secretly enjoying the pending destruction. The figure on the bull represents the strength of humanity. How strong must one be to be calm and assuring during times of suffering?
The cover art symbolizes that traumatic abuse to a child can be suppressed and decades later resurface, with all of the horror attached, in your adult years. During the early abuse and the reliving of it, I wanted a safe, protective place to go to: the warm embrace of a mother or female love. The female figure protects the smaller adult, representing the adult and the child as one. The sword represents his power to eventually heal, the crow represents death and transformation, and the dark foot and light on her hair represent the battle and balance between good and evil. The blue represents the blood spilled in this battle. As a child, I witnessed plenty of blood spilled by the innocent ones, and I would see their blood as blue or innocent blood separate from the red blood that coursed through the veins of the abusers.