12″x9″, Acrylic and Mixed Polymers on Wood, November 2008

This piece is based on the well known humorous painting “The Extraction of the Stone of Madness” by Hieronymus Bosch circa 1480. The fool having the stone cut out is saying, “Meester snyt die Keye ras”, or “Master, cut away the stone” in Old Dutch. The funnel hat and the flower suggests the “doctor” is a con artist, and the book on the head is believed to be a parody of the Dutch practise of wearing amulets made of scripture. Mostly this was a fun quickie painting done in about a day.

This painting also continues my experiments in “post-processing” the paintings with hard polymer glazes… I get sort of a dirty and demented egg tempera vibe from it — it gives them a nice glow and depth I think.